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The Life of 
RUSSELL H. CON WELL 

Preacher, Lecturer, Philanthropist 



With an Appendix containing Mr. 
ConwelTs Lecture/' Acres of Diamonds JJ 
and his oration, "Let There Be Light" 



By ALBERT HATCHER SMITH 




Silver, Burdett &f Company 
Boston New York Chicago 

% 



IE LIMLARY 
*F CONGRESS 




WO COPIES RECE1 

library *H 

Of 

DEC] n v ^ 

Register of Copyrights, 




49911 

Copyright, 1899, 
By SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY 



second ooPYt 






TO THE MEMOR Y OF THE HONORED DEAD 

Martin Conwell, the noble father, who prayed every morning that the 
'orld might be better in consequence of Russell's having lived in it, but 
:ho lay down to rest seeing but little evidence of the answer to his prayer ; 

Miranda Conwell, the sweet mother, who firmly believed that God 
.ad called her son to preach the Gospel of Christ, but who went to her grave 
with little hope that the call would ever be heeded ; 

Jennie P. Conwell, the devoted wife, who so heroically and cheerfully 
struggled with and for her husband during the early days of poverty, and 
died on the threshold of his success : 

This book is reverently dedicated. 



PREFACE 



In the preparation of this volume I have endeavored to 
present a true story of a truly great man, without over- 
statement or undue elaboration. I have kept in mind 
especially the poor boys who must rise in the world, if at 
all, by hard work and the utilization of spare moments in 
profitable study. No one can have read the history of 
our American people without realizing that such boys 
have proved themselves the true nobility of earth. I have 
kept in mind, also, the members of Mr. Conwell's church, 
of whom, for a space of three years, it was my privilege 
to be one, and I have endeavored to give them such facts 
of their pastor's life as they will desire to have in some 
permanent form. 

Having once felt compelled to decline the honor of 
being the first to give to the public a complete life of the 
great orator and preacher, I now record with pleasure that 
the more intimate acquaintance with Russell H. Conwell 
which the preparation of this volume occasioned and per- 
mitted, has more than compensated for the time and labor 
expended. 

I desire to make grateful acknowledgment to the author 
of " Scaling the Eagle's Nest " ; to Mr. Robert J. Burdette, 
who wrote "The Temple and the Templars"; to Miss 
Jennie L. Ring, Mr. Conwell's niece, of Westfield, Mass.; 

vii 



viii Preface 

to Dr. George A. Peltz, Mr. Conwell's able and loyal as- 
sociate pastor, and to Prof. Edward H. Eldridge, Mr. Con- 
well's genial and courteous private secretary, for valued 
assistance rendered. It may be added, that I have per- 
sonally known Mr. Conwell for ten years, and that I visited 
seventeen towns and cities in Massachusetts to get at the 
fountain-heads of information. 

I have throughout used the plain " Mr." instead of 
"Dr.," because the subject of this narrative has always 
objected to any recognition of the fact that he has a string 
of degrees at the end of his name. " Mr. Conwell" is 
the name which awakens numberless grateful memories in 
the hearts and minds of those of us who know and love him. 

That this book may be an inspiration to thousands who 
love humanity and humanity's God, is my sincere wish, 
and was the formative purpose in its preparation. 

Albert Hatcher Smith. 
December, 1899. 



CONTENTS 



I. 


Why This Biography is Written 






PAGE 
I 


II. 


An Early Romance 






J S 


III. 


Father and Mother 






19 


IV. 


Boyhood 






31 


V. 


Early Education 






43 


VI. 


Academy and College . 






52 


VII. 


The Soldier . . . 






• 63 


VIII. 


The First Love 






77 


IX. 


The Traveler 






92 


X. 


The Lecturer 






109 


XI. 


Mrs. Sarah Sanborn Conwell 






119 


XII. 


The Author .... 






127 


XIII. 


From Bar to Pulpit 






i39 


XIV. 


The Preacher 






*55 


XV. 


The History of Grace Baptist Church 


172 


XVI. 


The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 


183 


XVII. 


The Temple College 


199 


XVIII. 


The Samaritan Hospital 






213 


XIX. 


" Do the Next Thing " . 






223 


XX. 


Secrets of Power . 






237 


XXI. 


Learning by Experience 






247 


XXII. 


The Orator 






255 


XXIII. 


Conwell in Prayer 






269 


XXIV. 


"The Greatest of These Is Love 


» 




283 




"Acres of Diamonds" 

Substance of Mr. Conwell's Lecture. 


• 299 




" Let There Be Light " . 


» t 


• 


316 



An Oration. 

ix 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Grace Church (The Temple), Corner of Broad 
and Berks Streets, Philadelphia 



The Old Fireplace . 
Martin Conwell and Miranda Conwell 
The Church at South Worthington 
Birthplace of Russell H. Conwell 
The Homestead— " Eagle's Nest" 
Mrs. Lyman T. Ring 
The Little Red Schoolhouse 
Captain Conwell 
Lieutenant-Colonel Conwell 
Mrs. Jennie P. Conwell . 
Charles H. Conwell 
Mrs. Sarah Sanborn Conwell 
Mr. Conwell at Thirty- two 
At " Eagle's Nest " . 
Russell H. Conwell 
The Tent 

Grace Church — the Auditorium 
Rev. George A. Peltz, D.D. 
Temple College 
Samaritan Hospital 
Conwell Academy . 
Mr. Conwell's Summer Home 
Mr. Conwell and His Ox-Team 

xi 



Frontispiece 

, PAGE 

16 

20 

2 S 
33 
38 
41 
44 
54 
68 
80 

96 
120 
128 

US 
*54 

173 
185 

I9O 
200 

2I 5 
226 

238 

242 



xii Illustrations 

PAGE 

Interior of The Temple . . . . . . 249 

Mr. Conwell at Fifty-six . . . . . .257 

Mr. Conwell's Home Study 268 

A Ward in Samaritan Hospital ..... 282 
" The greatest of these is love." 






RUSSELL H. CONWELL 



CHAPTER I 

WHY THIS BIOGRAPHY IS WRITTEN 

Russell H. Coxwell, the lecturer, is the most 
sought after of any man on the lecture platform to-day. 
Of his thirty lectures, one, " Acres of Diamonds/' has been 
delivered twenty-six hundred times in twenty-nine years. 
His lecture engagements average two hundred nights a 
year, and from his lecture fees he has contributed toward 
the education of poor students more than half a million 
dollars. 

Russell H. Con well, the preacher, presides over the 
largest Protestant congregation in America. The net in- 
crease of his church during the seventeen years of his 
pastorate has been twenty-eight hundred members. 

Russell H. Con well, the author, has written nineteen 
books, a number of which have had a sale exceeding 
two hundred thousand each. 

Russell H. Conwell, the philanthropist, is founder and 
president of a college of eight thousand students, which, 
in addition to a large day department, adapts itself to the 
needs of the working people, who are too busy and too poor 



2 Russell H. Conwell 

to attend Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, but who receive at 
Temple College during their evenings, and in times of ces- 
sation from customary toil, inspiration and instruction 
by which thousands have been enabled to earn a better 
living, and hundreds to climb to positions of power and 
influence in the learned professions. He is founder and 
promoter of the Samaritan Hospital, where the poor can 
have the advantage of the best medical skill, and receive 
the attention of trained nurses, without money and with- 
out price; a Christian hospital, where the sick are healed 
for Jesus' sake. He is founder of an orphanage which 
cares for the little ones of the fireman or the policeman 
who lays down his life to save his neighbor's life or 
property. 

Russell H. Conwell, the man, was born in a mountain 
cottage. He is a self-made man, with a great heart. He 
has accomplished marvelous results through prodigious 
toil, is inspired by the noblest motives, has learned much 
by experience, and is a man of like passions with our- 
selves. 

The career of such a man, besides being deeply inter- 
esting, must contain many helpful lessons for others. 

Much has been published about him that is not true, 
and the impressions many have received are so erroneous 
that the real benefit which ought to accrue from the story 
of his life is largely lost. In an article of less than a 
thousand words which fell under the author's notice re- 
cently, there were seven statements, evidently made in 
good faith, but in which there was not one word of truth. 
Again, many things have been said and written about this 
man, which, while not false in statement, are, like many a 



Why This Biography is Written 3 

text of Scripture, sadly misused apart from the context. 
The kind-hearted clergyman who preached a three-divi- 
sion sermon from the three sentences, " Judas went and 
hanged himself," " Go thou and do likewise," " What thou 
doest, do quickly," was no further from the teaching of the 
Bible than many of Conwell's admirers are from the real 
character of their hero. Distorted truth often does more 
harm than falsehood. The world has admired Cromwell 
for his instruction to a young artist, tl Paint me as I am. " 
Nothing ever heightened my admiration for Conwell more 
than his injunction, as we were parting at a railway sta- 
tion, u When you write my life, tell of the failures as well 
as the successes." I will try to paint a true picture. 

The pastor of the Baptist Temple is not a theologian, 
and he is not a philosopher, but he has a firm grasp upon 
fundamental principles which is intuitive. He is pecul- 
iar, often eccentric, in his treatment of a theme, but his 
conclusions are orthodox. Every life represents a creative 
thought of God; is the incarnation of some great idea. 
Phillips Brooks said, " I count him a great man who in- 
habits a higher sphere of thought into which other men 
rise with labor and with difficulty." We Americans are 
such hero worshipers that we are apt to be blinded to ideas 
while bowing before personalities. Is it not true that we 
often fail to catch and lay to heart the main lesson to be 
learned from the life of one whose service to humanity 
entitles him to be called tk a success"? Mere imitators 
of mannerisms get their due when their resemblance to 
Socrates consists in a pair of crooked shoulders. But one 
who is alert to seize upon the idea of which another has 
become the incarnation, is not he wise in his generation? 



4 Russell H. Con well 

Conservative people, who are in a position to know, whose 
reputation for soundness entities them to a hearing, and 
whose enthusiasm is properly balanced by judgment, say 
that the Temple College idea is a practical one, that it is 
the answer to a long-felt need, that it has become an es- 
sential in our present stage of advancement, and that every 
city in the United States should have an institution mod- 
eled on the same general plan and adapted to the spe- 
cial needs of the locality. The vast majority look upon 
it as an institution which exists solely because Conwell is 
its founder and head; whereas the truth is, he simply met 
a need in Philadelphia which exists in hundreds of cities, 
but which awaits a leader. The same is true of the Hos- 
pital, and largely true of The Temple itself. Many sup- 
pose that these institutions came suddenly from Conwell's 
brain, and have succeeded because of his peculiar ability 
to push things to a successful issue, coupled with a cer- 
tain vague something no one has been able to fathom. In 
reality, he has no new theories about benevolent or educa- 
tional work, does not arrive at conclusions " like a flash of 
lightning," and never launches an enterprise without care- 
ful deliberation on the existing needs and the most feasi- 
ble means for supplying them. If there is no precedent 
to guide, he proceeds on the strongest probability; and 
should experiment reveal a better way, the better way is 
substituted. 

An address delivered in Boston in 1874 on "Boston 
Charities," in which he points out the evils of indiscrim- 
inate giving, defining what he conceived to be true char- 
ity, and suggesting methods for its proper administration, 
shows that he was then working out the idea upon which 



Why This Biography is Written 5 

the Samaritan Hospital was founded eighteen years later. 
The Temple College idea took shape in his brain many 
years before Philadelphia ever heard of Conwell. His 
own experience told him what he needed, his observation 
told him what others needed, study gave him the truth, a 
tender heart prompted him to attempt a remedy, expe- 
rience taught him what would work. 

His life reveals " that most mighty of cohesive forces, 
mingled faith and love." The world to-day needs the 
quickening and invigorating influence of a pure motive; 
the reassuring and convincing stimulus which com£s from 
an act of benevolence in which there are no honors or bids 
for popular favor involved. This is an age of charity balls 
with long lists of "patrons" in the newspapers; when 
" slumming " is a popular fad among certain classes of the 
wealthy; when large sums of money are given to public 
enterprises to conciliate " the masses " ; when one of the 
accompaniments of a donation to a college is that the insti- 
tution shall thenceforth bear the name of the donor. It is 
an age when the ability to amass a fortune is looked upon 
as a knack rather than a talent ; when enormous sums of 
money are made in a fortnight by a skilful manipulation 
of the stock market ; when legislatures appropriate large 
sums of money to hospitals, colleges, and reformatory in- 
stitutions, and call it "public charity," while in fact it is 
politics simply. These and many other considerations 
neutralize the effect which ought to result from the munifi- 
cence of large-hearted, public-spirited benefactors who 
give millions of money out of pure motives to lighten the 
burdens and increase, the opportunities of their fellow- 
beings, and yet shun the public eye. 



6 Russell H. Conwell 

Then, again, the Church is no longer the exclusive ex- 
ponent of Christianity. The principles enunciated by 
Jesus of Nazareth have found expression in schools, hos- 
pitals, orphanages ; in law, in the elevation of womanhood, 
and in the abolition of the caste spirit. Slavery has 
dropped its clanking chains. Religious persecution, with 
its merciless fagot, is flying from the field of universal 
brotherhood. Famine, with its terrible chain of human 
woes, is far less common. Pestilential disease is disap- 
pearing before the onward march of medical science. 
What more need we ? The example of a pure and unsel- 
fish life; a modern instance of strength ministering to 
weakness; to see one visiting the widows and fatherless 
in their afflictions, and keeping himself unspotted from 
the world. A Christian banker once said to me, after 
hearing "Acres of Diamonds": "That is the message 
this age needs. Conwell is one of the few men who help 
me to keep faith in humanity and to believe that the world 
will ever be freed from the chains of selfishness." 

Moreover, the Church is facing the absolute necessity 
of a forward step which will give the Christian religion 
a firmer hold on the public mind. There is a shocking 
contrast between the command, " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature,'' and the 
fact that after nineteen centuries, and in the most Chris- 
tian of nations, the young men are classified as follows : 

Fifty per cent never enter a church. 

Twenty-five per cent attend but seldom. 

Twenty-five per cent attend more or less regularly. 

From five to seven per cent are members. 

All over this land the most spiritual and progressive 



Why This Biography is Written J 

Christians, both in pulpit and pew, are saying in accents 
pathetic with apprehension : " It is time for us to wake up 
to the seriousness of this problem. " What is to be done? 
The reader will do his own thinking. Ever since God 
took the simple-minded monk of Wittenberg and, hurling 
him against the ramparts of falsehood and godless indif- 
ference, shook the earth with his mighty strivings for 
the recognition of a Scriptural truth, men have believed in 
the resistless force of an individual life on fire with an 
idea. 

The prophets and idealists of our age are searching for 
theories and principles whose application to our perplexing 
problems of equality and brotherhood would quicken the 
pace of progress toward 

"That one, far-off, divine event 

To which the whole creation moves," 

After excursions through the land-tax theory of Henry 
George, the fantastic Scripture exegesis of Count Tolstoi, 
the materialistic philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and 
glimpses at the precipices and sloughs of despond fur- 
nished by anarchists, socialists, communists, and populists, 
the Christian consciousness is settling back to content it- 
self with the ideal of the Nazarene, namely, " the King- 
dom of God," a phrase which was seldom off the Savior's 
lips. What is the Kingdom of God? Let Prof. Henry 
Drummond define it for us : " Now the Kingdom of God 
is a society of the best men, working for the best ends, 
with the highest motives, according to the best prin- 
ciples." 

This biography is written to acquaint the reader with a 



8 Russell H. Conwell 

contemporary who is one of the best of men, who works 
for the best ends, whose sacrifice is inspired by the high- 
est motives, whose experience is confirmative of the best 
principles, and whose life is, in consequence of its con- 
formity to these divine ideals, a conspicuous success. An 
admirer of James Parton has said : " There can be no 
higher public service than that of the man who gives to 
his fellows, and particularly to the rising generation, good 
biographies of noble men. " He whose life we are to 
study has made a name which posterity will not willingly 
let die. 

The life that has the most inspiration for the youth of 
to-day is not one lived a hundred years ago under widely 
different circumstances, but that of the man who has suc- 
ceeded under present conditions ; who has successfully 
grappled with the obstacles, and at least approximated the 
standard, of this exacting age. Every age is peculiar to 
itself in the difficulties it presents to progress and devel- 
opment. The world has advanced more in the past fifty 
years than in any previous fifty decades. We have steam 
and electricity as motive powers. We have more acade- 
mies, colleges, and professional schools than ever before. 
Never in the history of the world Avere the means of 
knowledge so nearly adequate to the desire to know. 

Conwell's is a life full of thrilling incidents. 

A lonely runaway boy picked up on the streets of Bos-' 
ton by a kind-hearted Sunday-school worker. 

Subsisting on oatmeal and milk at Wilbraham Academy 
while struggling for an education. 

Left all night on a battlefield for dead. 

Running to his burning home when the wounds, re- 



Why This Biography is Written 9 

ceived in the army, broke out afresh as he fought the 
cruel flames that were destroying his library, furniture, 
and wedding presents. 

Lying in a hospital in Paris, hearing the physicians say, 
" You have only a few days to live. " 

Working on a Boston paper for 55 a week, while liv- 
ing on one meal of bread a day and carrying bread and 
milk home to his loved ones. 

Barely escaping murder at the hands of gamblers in 
New Orleans, whose precincts he had invaded for news. 

Visiting Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome, Paris, and VVaterloo, 
where his excited imagination peopled those scenes with 
the historic personages whose memories are imperishable. 

Sick and nigh unto death with Roman fever in a hotel 
in Rome. 

Standing by the grave of a loving wife, feeling that 
every earthly hope was buried beneath the sod. 

Singing "Nearer, my God, to thee," on a water-soaked 
vessel during a dreadful storm, when the captain said, 
" We cannot survive an hour. " 

Undertaking large Christian enterprises with no money, 
sustained by a heroic faith. 

Turning at last from long-cherished ambitions to lay 
his life on the altar of sacrifice and service. 

Praying all night in The Temple when in extreme need 
of money to carry on building enterprises, when notes 
were on the verge of protest, and having his prayers an- 
swered in ways beyond human understanding. 

Waiting by the penitent's side before heaven's open 
door until he hears the echo of rejoicing in the presence 
of the angels of God. 



io Russell H. Conwell 

Yes, truth is stranger than fiction. If people of culture 
and refinement would only believe it ! There is no neces- 
sity for resorting to material which is the least " off color " 
for experiences that thrill the soul, stimulate the imagina- 
tion, and excite admiring wonder. 

But the chief reason why this book should be written 
is not that a recital may be made of Mr. Conwell' s mag- 
nificent achievements, and of the romantic incidents of his 
life — and certainly not that eulogy, however merited, may 
be indulged ; but it is found in the fact that throughout 
the length and breadth of this land there are thousands 
of young men and women with similar surroundings, and 
apparently as richly endowed with mental gifts as was 
Conwell in his youth. His life is an illustration of the 
fact that a man can, by the proper cultivation of his God- 
given powers, rise to the highest position of usefulness; 
and that the top round of the ladder of fame is usually 
reserved for the boy who begins to climb with bare feet. 
Whence are those to come who are to be leaders in our 
political, literary, scientific, business, and religious life in 
future years? If we can safely judge from the experience 
of the past, they will come from humble homes, from ob- 
scurity, and out of comparative poverty. " History is the 
biography of great men." Great men are the indispen- 
sable promoters of great enterprises and makers of the 
epochs of history. If we enjoy peace, prosperity, political 
and religious liberty to-day it is because men of great 
minds and great capacity for suffering have wrought and 
suffered that they might vouchsafe to posterity the bless- 
ings of a great and free people. The pathway of human- 
ity has been upward and onward from the beginning. De- 



Why This Biography is Written 1 1 

velopment and progress are laws of the race. Nations 
have decayed, systems have perished, governments have 
crumbled, races have become extinct, but man has devel- 
oped physically, mentally, and morally until now we stand 
at the very summit of time. The Persian curriculum, " To 
ride, shoot, and tell the truth," is not a complete motto 
for these times. The aspiring youth of to-day needs to 
know something in addition to the fact that "the Teu- 
tonic stock owes everything that is great and inspiring in 
its destiny to its faculty of overcoming difficulties by hard 
work," however that may encourage the boy who has parts 
and poverty. It has been a revelation to thousands that 
a man like Conwell could exist. They have thanked God 
and taken courage for humanity. Many, seeing his faith, 
have had a like faith kindled in their own breasts — faith in 
themselves, in humanity, in God. Since Robert Burns 
called the attention of the world to a new standard of 
judgment — " A man's a man for a' that " — there has been 
an increasing emphasis laid on the individual. Students 
are having their attention directed to " the growing in- 
tensity of the democratic thought." It requires but a brief 
reference to what thinking men are saying in these days to 
convince us that a process which Humboldt designated 
"the specific work of civilization," namely, "to get the 
individual out of the mass and to exalt personality," is 
going on at a rapid rate. Hear Justice Brewer : " No man 
can read the history of the last hundred years without rec- 
ognizing the fact that it is' becoming more and more em- 
phatic in the judgment of all that the one sacred thing 
is the individual ; that birth, wealth, place, profession, 
achievements, intellectual accomplishments are all subor- 



12 Russell H. Conwell 

dinated to Lie great fact of manhood, and that no author- 
ity, no control, no dominance over society or state right- 
fully attaches to any of the accidents or incidents of life. 
There is no divine right of kings. There is no apostolic 
succession. There is no inherited greatness. M 
Or listen to Edna Dean Proctor : 

" Clear-eyed, the world is learning through each upward strug- 
gling year, 
He is prince whose life is noblest, be he peasant, be he peer. 
Lo! it crowns a Garibaldi, born a fisher by the sea, 
And it scorns the king of Naples, though of Bourbon blood 
is he." 

It is a good thing for the pew to preach to the pulpit 
occasionally, and no man is better qualified for the service 
than Justice Brewer : " We may have ceased to look at the 
pulpit, but we still look at the man in the pulpit. Your 
impression upon life is and ought to be great and power- 
ful ; but it will be an impression coming not from your 
profession, but from your personal earnestness, devotion, 
and ability. " 

Such being the spirit of the age, it is all the more im- 
portant that we should know the private life and animating 
motive of men before yielding our homage. We should 
profit by the character of men whose accomplishments 
are so conspicuously in line with the needs of our time. 
Slowly and with dulness of comprehension, but surely, the 
Christian world is learning the mind of Christ. What is 
that mind? Judge from what he did : 

" He emptied himself, took upon him the form of a 
servant, was made in the likeness of men. He humbled 
himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of 



Why This Biography is Written i 3 

the cross. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him and 
given him a name that is above every name." 

Few men have attained prominence in the nineteenth 
century whose greatness was the direct result of certain 
supreme qualities of character more distinctly than has 
Russell H. Conwell. He is a peculiar composition. His 
mother looked down into the depths of his nature, saw a 
reflection of her boy's struggle, and prophesied, " Russell 
will either be a very good man or a very bad man." His 
father probably never knew exactly why, but his fatherly 
heart prompted him to pray every morning that the world 
would not be any the worse, but that it might be better, in 
consequence of his children having lived in it. He who 
draws such crowds of people to his church in Philadelphia 
and interprets to them the significance of life, has, like 
his Master, " learned obedience by the things which he 
suffered. " Crushing sorrows have fallen along his path- 
way. Years of wandering in foreign lands did not suffice 
to silence the reprovings of a troubled conscience. Great 
discords have come into his life, to sweeten the melody 
and heighten the strain. An omnivorous reader of books, 
with an insatiable thirst for learning, he tried for years to 
satisfy the cravings of personal ambition. All in vain. 
At last he emptied himself. That statement defies anal- 
ysis, but it is the key to the secret chamber of the heart. 
These latter years have witnessed a life of service, sacri- 
fice, and humility — a whole being laid on the altar of 
humanity's crying needs. 

Many of life's great problems are yet unsolved. The 
unregenerate progressionist swings from materialism to 
spiritualism. The Christian is often puzzled to know how 



14 Russell II. Conwell 

to apply the Gospel in the power of which he has implicit 
faith. At last the cry goes up from many theological 
camps, " Back to Christ ! " Would it not be well to build 
our house on a rock? God could not save this world until 
he incarnated love. It is the one divine method which 
needs especial emphasis as the nineteenth century closes ; 
a force which will carry men for God and righteousness 
in spite of their intellectual difficulties, chilling indiffer- 
ence, and bewildering doubts. Love in action, love incar- 
nate, love the essence of life, love a principle of all conduct 
— that is, more than anything else, the secret of Conwell' s 
success. That is the idea which, applied to the practical 
affairs of life, and its efficiency demonstrated by many 
illustrations and references to the experiences of success- 
ful people, is the cornerstone of his great lecture, " Acres 
of Diamonds." He says himself: 4k 'Acres of Diamonds ' 
is a sermon; it was never intended for a popular lecture." 
He therein states the personal side of the second great 
commandment : " The full consecration of your talents to 
the welfare of others is the best security for your own 
success. " That, too, is the keynote of The Temple work. 
Is a life of this stamp worth knowing? Is there any- 
thing convincing about such a career? That all who de- 
sire it may know the true story of this wonderful life, the 
principles upon which Conwell works, the methods he 
employs, the lessons his experiences have taught, and the 
results he has accomplished, is the purpose of this volume. 
A life full of flower and fruit, we hope it may not pass 
from us while there is a green leaf left. When the sum- 
mons comes, earth will be less lovely to many thousands 
to whose happiness his consecrated genius has contributed. 



CHAPTER II 

AN EARLY ROMANCE 

In the year 1810 a young man went from Western Mas- 
sachusetts to a college in Baltimore. In college his most 
intimate friend was a student from Eastern Maryland by 
the name of Martin Conwell. When the New Englander 
returned home for his next summer's vacation his Mary- 
land friend accompanied him as his guest, and while there 
was employed by the local school board to teach school 
during the fall and winter months. Before the school 
term ended he fell in love with a Miss Niles, who was 
then engaged to be married to a young man by the name 
of Cole. The young lady was more attached to the young 
schoolmaster than to her intended. The next spring the 
young couple ran away to Hatfield, a town a few miles 
distant, and were married; returning after a two- weeks' 
honeymoon, the groom went to his boarding-house and the 
bride to her father's home. The news of their marriage 
became circulated through the neighborhood and created 
great indignation.' That a young school-teacher from 
Maryland should marry a girl who was engaged to one of 
their home boys w T as more than the neighbors could stand. 
Her father held her a prisoner in her room. One day he 
went to her room with a shot-gun, and compelled her to 
write a letter to her young husband, saying that he had 
taken an unfair advantage of her, and declaring that she 




^&*i^*~- 



#k 



THE OLD FIREPLACE 



An Early Romance 17 

would have nothing more to do with him. Upon receipt of 
this letter the poor schoolmaster was greatly perplexed, 
not knowing that his bride was held a prisoner. He, how- 
ever, answered the letter, requesting one more meeting at 
the schoolhouse, which letter was opened and read by 
her father, she knowing nothing of it. When the stated 
time arrived the young teacher went to the schoolhouse 
and proceeded to pack his books, but was interrupted by 
his wife's father, who came with a number of neighbors 
and threatened to kill him. He fastened the heavy shut- 
ters and held the fort. By evening an immense crowd had 
gathered, heavily armed. It was a disgraceful mob. The 
schoolmaster refusing to come out and be killed, they set 
fire to the schoolhouse and burned it over his head. 
When he could ho longer remain within the burning build- 
ing he leaped through a window, made his escape across 
a neighboring swamp, and thus saved his life. Several 
shots were fired, some of which pierced his clothing; and 
as nothing could be found of his body, and blood had been 
seen upon the leaves of the bushes, he was reported to his 
young bride as dead. She never heard from him after- 
ward. A son was born to her, whom she named Martin 
Conwell. She married her former intended, and raised a 
family of children. After her second husband was dead 
and her children married, she went to live with her oldest 
son Martin. She had always grieved for her first hus- 
band, never feeling quite certain whether he was alive 
or dead. As she grew old she cried a greater part of 
the time. Russell H. Conwell remembers saying to his 
mother, u Mamma, what makes grandmamma cry so?" 
His mother answered, " Don't say anything about it, be- 



1 8 Russell H. Conwcll 

cause you will only make it worse ; but she is crying for 
your grandfather, whom she married when a young woman, 
and who she was told was killed by a mob." Toward the 
close of her life she sat in her old arm-chair by the open 
fireplace and cried until her heart broke, wondering why 
her young husband had left her, why he had never come 
back, and if it was really true that he was dead. The 
matter was seldom spoken of in the Conwell home, the 
family feeling that it was a kind of disgrace. 

In the year 1897, after a morning service in the Phila- 
delphia Temple, a stranger shook hands with the pastor, 
remarking : 

i4 You look wonderfully like a man I used to work for 
down in Maryland." 

" What was his name? " inquired the preacher. 

"Martin Conwell," was the reply; "I lived with him 
twenty years ; he kept a store, accumulated property, but 
never married. He told me that in his early life he was 
married to a young woman in Worthington, Mass., but 
that she had repudiated him, and he had not heard from 
her afterward. He, however, never cared for any other 
woman, and died grieving for the bride of his youth." 

The lovers never met in this world. Each died griev- 
ing for the other. He thought she had repudiated him. 
She thought he had forsaken her. Both were in doubt, 
but they died — lovers. 



CHAPTER III 

FATHER AND MOTHER 

"Tell of things jest like they wuz — 
They don't need no excuse ! 
Don't tech 'em up like the poets does, 
Till they're all too fine fer use ! " 

Martin Conwell and Miranda Wickham were married 
in 1839, he-being twenty-seven and she twenty-two years 
of age. They started life together on a capital he had 
earned of $200. To make a living among the Berkshire 
Hills meant hard work. Martin was a stonemason by 
trade, but soon bought a small farm, and in after years 
added a country store, and still later, became a drover, 
dealing chiefly in cattle, calves, and sheep. He was never 
worth over $2,000 in this world's goods. If many a 
young man could take the amount he has when twenty- 
seven years old, and multiply it by ten while caring for his 
family, supporting the religious, benevolent, and educa- 
tional enterprises of the neighborhood, and give to the 
world a great benefactor, he would call it a very success- 
ful life. Let not the meager education and cramped en- 
vironment of a country stonemason blind our eyes to the 
true worth of the man. He had energy, versatility, pub- 
lic spirit, and patriotism. He had the love of a noble 
young wife, and an exhaustless mine of strength and 
pluck. The next year their first-born, Charles, came to 




'Kj^J\ 





« 

fa 

O 

fa 

h 

O 

S- 

W 



Father and Mother 21 

brighten their mountain home and infuse a new motive to 
get on in the world. Husband and wife were both mem- 
bers of the Methodist Church, and naturally reverent in 
manner and benevolent in spirit. Kindliness is a charac- 
teristic of the Conwell family. Martin always gave largely 
of his means to the support of the church, and Sunday 
found him in his pew — which means, that he regularly 
attended service in the little frame church and sat on a 
hard bench during services. Miranda often sent provi- 
sions to poor families, and made many dainty dishes for 
the sick. No applicant for charit)rever went hungry from 
her door if there was the least evidence of worthiness in 
his manner. She supplemented the family income by 
making suspenders and coats by the dozen. She was a 
kind and loving mother, and a woman of some mental cul- 
ture, as shown by the fact that she read the best books to 
her children as soon as they were old enough to under- 
stand ; stimulated the imagination and broadened the men- 
tal horizon of her boys by Bible readings and by letters 
of foreign correspondents in the New York Tribune every 
Sunday afternoon. Before we go on to the story of 
the life so beautiful in service, so fascinating in absorb- 
ing interest; before we speak in detail of him whom 
many thousands have learned to love, we may well bow 
reverently and express our thanks for the careful train- 
ing of a sainted mother from whom he inherited that 
kindness and gentleness without which we might greatly 
admire, but could not love him. Years afterward, when 
the dear mother's hairs were whitening under the cares 
of sixty summers; when toil and sorrow made her an 
easy prey to disease, and she lay down to rest in the 



22 Russell H. Conwell 

embrace of death, the Rev. J. S. Bisbee, pastor of the 
Congregational church at Worthington Centre, and an old 
friend of the family, preached her funeral sermon, finding 
in her life of cheerful labor with her needle a close anal- 
ogy to the faithful Dorcas of apostolic times. Making 
coats at thirty-seven cents apiece, she had in one year 
stitched forty dollars into the family purse. Her hands 
were full of loving service. She was just the kind of a 
mother to say, and in thus saying reflect the deepest feel- 
ing of her heart, what is inscribed on little Arthur's 
tombstone (Arthur was born in 1854, and lived seven 
months) : " Sweet babe, thou hast flown." 

But let us go back to a day when she was in the vigor 
and strength of her twenty-seventh year, when Martin 
looked out upon the future from the inspiring elevation of 
his thirtieth milestone. Little Charley was nearly three 
years old, and could partly look out for himself. The 
novelty of his babyhood, with trusting innocence and 
helpless dependence on mother's watchful care, was losing 
its most delicate shading. February had piled its snow 
against the little cottage, and the path to the barn had 
been shoveled so many times that a bank had been formed 
on either side, leaving a narrow passageway to horses, 
cows, and chickens. It had been necessary to keep up 
an extra fire, and Martin was much occupied with his ax 
and jack-saw in the woodshed. He had felt of late that 
he ought to spend a part of each day assisting with the 
housework and washing the dishes. There was an atmos- 
phere of expectancy about the house which the uninitiated 
would detect but could not comprehend. This aforesaid 
atmosphere had mounted the bleak air, and enlisted the 



Father and Mother 23 

interested readiness of a neighbor whose choice of a par- 
ticular means of serving her sex occasioned frequent 
periods of absence from home. It was a bitter cold 
night. The wind had risen about sundown, and the driv- 
ing snow pelted the belated homecomer with ruthless 
fury. Martin attended to his chores rather early, thinking 
perchance he might be needed for more pressing service 
later on. Little Charley grew sleepy at an early hour, and 
was tucked up on the lounge in the ''living room." One 
problem of life had solved itself. When the peaceful 
slumber of the first-born was an assured fact, the father 
made his way to the house of the previously engaged 
neighbor and offered to share the hospitality of his hum- 
ble roof "just as soon as convenient,'' and pushed on with 
step more sprightly than usual for a certain man of skill 
whose interest in the health of the community was a finan- 
cial consideration. He would " be up right away." The 
farmer-mason was home in a jiffy and putting more wood 
on the fire. 

That night lecture audiences assembled in many cities 
to hear the stars of the platform, applauded their elo- 
quence, admired their scholarship, but went home all 
unconscious of the "Acres of Diamonds" within their 
reach. That night aspiring and ambitious youths pored 
over the biographies of ancient heroes, wondering if all 
the great men were dead, and if not, why some one did not 
write the life of some man or woman who had succeeded 
in modern times, successfully coping with the conditions 
confronting the young men of to-day. That night thou- 
sands of poor boys sat by open fires and longed for an 
opportunity to get an education. That night the sick lay 



24 Russell H. Conwell 

upon their beds neglected or harshly treated, and won- 
dered if the disciples of the great Physician would ever be 
enough like him to try to heal the sick for his sake. 
That night the Christian Church prayed, debated, and ad- 
vanced with slow and unsteady tread, lacking the leadership 
of a comprehensive and all-absorbing love which would 
guide it along such paths of service as would bring a suf- 
fering, ignorant, and sinful world in touch of its Savior. 

There was born that night, in a three-roomed house in 
one of the most bleak and mountainous districts of Mas- 
sachusetts, a boy who would some day fill these great 
needs of yon distant city. It was a stormy night that 
welcomed him, but the spirit of the mountains drew a 
faithful picture of his future pilgrimage. Oh, mother of 
the great-hearted Conwell, if that night when your steps 
lay along the borderland between life and death ; if when 
you touched the fringe of this closely curtained world ; if 
next morning, when the first mystic glances of an inno- 
cent, trusting soul kissed your loving eyes, you could have 
known of the thousands who wdVld rise up to call you 
blessed, how unspeakably sacred motherhood would have 
been to you! But it was sweet without the world's ap- 
plause; and if the angels did whisper into that mother's 
ears suggestions of coming events, she kept them and 
pondered them in her heart. Her baby boy weighed four- 
teen pounds when he was born, and as the proud old nurse 
noticed with what unusual strength he raised his head and 
looked out of the window, perhaps for an acre of diamonds, 
she said to herself: " He has the light gray eyes of the 
Conwells and the coal-black hair of the Wickhams." 

It is a strange fact of history that men who play a most 




CHURCH AT SOUTH WORTH INGTON 



26 Russell H. Conwell 

conspicuous part in the world's advancement, who climb 
to the highest rounds of the ladder of fame, who become 
the true royalty of earth more regal than earth-born kings, 
are usually born and reared in mountainous districts. 
There are probably well-definable reasons why this is so. 
The mountain boy is compelled by his surroundings to 
cope with great physical difficulties, and thus develop a 
hardihood which begets self-reliance. His experience 
teaches him, in a most practical way, that " A pound of 
pluck is worth a ton of luck. M He breathes pure air and 
sleeps soundly away from the pollutions of the city. He 
is accustomed to look upon distant landscapes of rugged 
scenery, and thus develop a far-seeing mental vision. He 
lives near Nature's heart, and, while it is impossible to 
" look through Nature up to Nature's God,'* in the sense 
in which those words are usually understood, there is a 
sense of awe and majesty which the mountain boy breathes 
into his soul, and which seems to pave the way for the 
God of revelation. Thus the mountain boy believes in 
God from the very impulse of his heart, and grows up with 
a toughened moral fibre which carries him over the little 
temptations of life as smoothly and majestically as his old 
friend, the bald eagle, soars over the foot-hills to his nest 
on the lofty crag. 

Even to the casual observer there is a rugged beauty in 
the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. He cannot but note 
the lovely golden tint with which the sunshine has colored 
the mountain-side. And he is blind who does not ad- 
mire the softness and delicacy with which the king of 
day spreads his gems of transparent brilliancy on the 
leafy show-case of a Berkshire hillside. And he is deaf 



Father and Mother 27 

whose ear does not tingle with the musical cadence of 
the cascades, as the low murmur of their continuous tum- 
ble floats up from the ravine, saying in silvery accents, 

" But I go on forever." 

The rocks and bowlders seem to have arranged them- 
selves on the principle that in union there is strength, 
and by their proximity make an exasperating and success- 
ful effort to resist the encroachments of man upon Na- 
ture's ancient handiwork. If perchance the sturdy moun- 
taineer succeeds in climbing over this barricade and 
planting a hill of corn in the thin earth between, he must 
tend it against the solid protest of giant bowlders and 
the active competition of rank and vigorous weeds. The 
very difficulties presented to the mountain farmer boy 
compel him to rely upon personal effort and hand-to- 
hand contact. He cannot hitch a traction engine to a 
dozen plows and turn over twenty acres of rich, fertile 
soil a day without even finding a stone. He must hitch 
two strong but steady horses to a plow, and march with 
irregular step and frequent halts between a set of jobbing 
plow-handles; and if, when the lengthening shadows and 
renewed frog-concerts in the neighboring ponds remind 
him that " night cometh when no man can work," he has 
scratched over one acre of ground amid three acres of 
rocks, he can go about the evening chores with the assur- 
ance of a day well spent. He cannot ride lazily and 
sleepily across a fifty-acre field seated on a cultivator 
which is plowing his corn in the straight and regular 
rows, but must take down his hoe, roll up his sleeves, 
loosen up the dirt around the struggling cornstalks, pull 



28 Russell H. Conwell 

over a little fresh dirt from a nearby crevice, reach down 
and pull out the weed which has grown twice as rapidly 
as the corn and in such proximity thereunto that a chop 
with the hoe would endanger the stalk. When night 
comes he is tired in every muscle, but he has before his 
eye a lesson he will never forget — " Persistent personal 
effort is the price of success." 

Seeing the unequal struggle to which man is put in this 
fight for a foothold amid the general debris of Nature's 
upheavals, the majestic and motherly old maple comes to 
his help with copious quantities of syrup and sugar to 
cover his buckwheat cakes and sweeten his long winter 
evenings before the open fire. And yet, lest she should 
partly undo the primary work of the hills and rocks, she 
compels him to pay a nominal sum of effort in boring 
trees, watching buckets, and boiling syrup. Grand old 
mountains! Your lessons are hard; you are in league 
with Nature to scare out and hustle back to the valley the 
unworthy, the soft-handed and chicken-hearted. But to 
him who will pay the price which you exact for the privi- 
lege of your companionship, you will teach lessons which 
no college professor can impart. The positions your pupils 
occupy in the world, the quality of manhood you have pro- 
duced, the streams of redemptive influence you have sent 
into city life, are sufficient vindication of your methods. 
We once thought your lessons hard and your discipline 
stern, but from the view-point of life's uncompromising 
necessities we thank you for giving us what most we 
needed. 

Martin Conwell did a great deal toward his son's suc- 
cess when he handed down a strong physical constitution. 



Father and Mother 29 

But that was not all. The influence of that Christian 
home held Russell to a life of purity, honesty, and high 
ideal even when he boasted that he was an atheist. His 
father's willingness to make any sacrifice for the educa- 
tion of his boys, even when he had nothing to give them 
but their time, was ever remembered with filial gratitude. 
One glimpse of the influence of Martin Conwell's life is 
seen in Russell's preface to his book, "Woman and the 
Law" : "God knows that the motive is to make oneself 
useful to the unhappy, and he will not let the power of a 
good motive die, be it clothed ever so clumsily. It may 
be that some friendless or defrauded one somewhere in 
this great world will see herein a way to regain that which 
was lost, or to secure some great good she never would 
have thought to be within her reach. Ah, could we real- 
ize that the prayer of an idolized one who asked so often 
that ' the world might be better for his children's having 
lived in it, ' was herein partly answered ! Perhaps we 
may, The great Father sees us." 

Something of the tenderness Russell had for his mother 
is seen in a visit he once paid to her grave with a young 
friend. It was after the great burdens of a crowded life 
had furrowed the brow where a mother's kiss had been so 
lovingly placed as she tucked her bright, mischievous boy 
up in bed, with a prayer that God would graciously care 
for him when there should come " sorrows the mother-lips 
can't kiss away." As the carriage approached the Ring- 
ville Cemetery he became strangely silent, with a far-away 
look in his eyes, as though the present had suddenly be- 
come transparent, and the scenes of other days were pass- 
ing before him. Oblivious to the presence of another, he 



30 Russell H. Conwell 

walked to the plot where father, mother, brother Charles, 
and baby brother Arthur awaited the coming of their only 
remaining son and brother. Kneeling by his mother' s 
tomb the strong man gave himself into the embrace of a 
sacred sorrow which only He who can read the language 
of a tear and interpret the throb of an aching heart could 
comprehend. Rising from his knees and turning away 
from the mound, he remarked to his companion : " My 
child, there is one sorrow o'f heart you will never know 
until you stand above all that remains on earth of a sainted 
mother." 



CHAPTER IV 

BOYHOOD 

As one gazes on the rugged mountains and worn-out 
farms of Western Massachusetts, he is at a loss to see any- 
thing that would be especially favorable to the prQduction 
of a man who would take precedence over the city-bred 
competitor for fortune, fame, and learning. That, how- 
ever, is a superficial observation. History teaches the con- 
trary. Scholars who have made a careful study of the ef- 
fect of early environment upon character tell us that the 
country boy's honesty and perception of right and wrong 
are superior to the city boy's. Emerson says : " All nat- 
ural leaders come from the country, and their children 
must go back to learn the secret of their fathers' power." 
Victor Hugo affirms : " Woods and fields make the educa- 
tion of all great men." President Eliot, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, once declared that the survival of particular fam- 
ilies in America depended upon maintaining a house in 
the country. Many people think the principal difference 
between the city and the country boy consists in the opin- 
ions they hold of themselves. The country boy, conscious 
of his ignorance, wants to know everything ; the city boy, 
proud of his advantages, thinks he can tell him. " The 
more a man is bent on action the more profoundly he 
needs this very calmness of Nature to preserve his equilib- 
rium," says Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The country 



32 Russell H. Conwell 

boy is often compelled to work alone in fields and woods, 
and employs his lonely hours in thinking and planning ; 
while with the average city-bred chap meditation is well- 
nigh a lost art. The country boy, in the very necessity of 
his work, develops self-reliance, hardihood, and the ability 
to grapple with difficulty, while not subjected to the tempta- 
tions of city life. He knows people personally with an 
unsophisticated friendship which is stimulating and brac- 
ing. Non-conducting brick walls are not conducive to the 
richest experiences of heart-culture. Where have the re- 
formers, martyrs, statesmen, warriors, and philanthropists 
of all ages been reared? On the frontier and in the 
mountains. 

If Abraham Lincoln had spent his early days in a city ; 
if he had smoked cigarettes, carried a big-headed cane, 
worn a collar he could hardly see over, trousers he could 
not sit down in, and a coat that would frighten the wild 
beasts, would there ever have fallen from his lips those 
immortal words, in referring to the slave power : " Broken 
by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The prob- 
ability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter 
us from the support of a cause which I deem to be just; 
and it shall not deter me "? 

But the biographer is compelled to move on; Russell 
H. Conwell is on the scene, and there is nothing to do but 
move. This boy would not stay in the cradle. He was 
an active, mischievous youth; the daredevil spirit was 
born in him. So full of life and adventure was he that, 
before he was three years old, his mother had to whip him 
three times in one day for repeatedly walking a log over a 
creek where he was in imminent danger of falling upon 



34 Russell H. Con well 

the rocks below. He took the whippings philosophically, 
and again tried his balancing power on the log. When 
he was three years old he started to school in a little red 
schoolhouse over on the Worthington road, two miles from 
home. This early educational venture was not undertaken 
because he was prepared to profit by schoolroom instruc- 
tion; but Charles was attending, and mischievous Russell 
was turned over to the tender mercies of the schoolma'am 
as a partial preventive against his breaking his neck in 
reckless ventures around the house and barn. It was not 
because he was unusually bright. Fifty years later the 
president of Boston University asked Professor Niles, Mr. 
Conwell's cousin, what he remembered of the great 
preacher's youth, and had his faith in humanity greatly 
strengthened by the professor's reply, that " Russell cried 
the loudest and got the most lickings of any boy in 
school." 

Around the home Russell had a marked fondness for, 
and gained peculiar mesmeric influence over, domestic 
animals. He would call the cats, dogs, pigs, and sheep 
by name, and they would obey him as though he had a 
secret understanding with them to do just what he told 
them. And so he had. He had a tender heart. He 
swayed the beasts by the power of his will, and held them 
by the power of his affection. Once a favorite cat died, 
and the coming preacher delivered the funeral oration in 
the following epigrammatic language : " Oh, cat, thou art 
squat!" 

His most marked characteristics when a lad were gen- 
erosity, enthusiasm, and fondness for public speaking. 
He frequently stumbled when he walked, was a somnam- 



Boyhood 35 

bulist, seldom got into fights, was a natural leader and 
arbitrator among his schoolmates. He organized a num- 
ber of military companies, one of which bore the strange 
name of " Silence." He was not always understood by 
other people. No boy or man who is ahead of his neigh- 
bors ever is understood, or escapes criticism. Conwell 
has always had the unconscious power of entering into the 
spirit and enthusiasm of an occasion with a marked degree 
of self-abandon. One Fourth of July he attended a patri- 
otic demonstration at Chesterfield, arid entered with such 
reckless lack of self-consciousness into the spirit of the 
parade that long after it was over he strutted about, lead- 
ing many people to remark that he was drunk. In school 
he threw more spit-balls, chewed more apples, cut more, 
desks, kissed more girls than any other boy of his size 
and weight. His teachers whipped him as many as eight 
times a day. He was not a bad boy, but bubbled over 
with fun. He carried his pockets full of apples to the 
school-children, and shared his dinners with the less for- 
tunate; was always ready to champion the cause of the 
oppressed, and sympathized with the boy who was down. 

His wonderful faculty of bringing before his vision real 
or imaginary characters led to absent-mindedness. One 
evening he went out into the storeroom for a cup of 
molasses. The weather was cold and the molasses slow- 
motioned. Russell left the cup under the spigot, went 
back to the fireplace; and forgot all about his errand until 
his father's return two hours later. He milked the cows, 
fed the sheep, curried the horses, broke steers to the sad- 
dle, tamed squirrels, harnessed up the dog, and lived the 
free, ordinary life of a country boy. One day while Mrs. 



36 Russell H. Conwell 

Asa Niles was visiting at the Conwell home, Russell 
showed her a pet squirrel, had it " show off " by washing 
its own face, and explained how the cat was trained to live 
peaceably with the squirrel. " The lion and the lamb 
shall lie down together. " While he was demonstrating, 
the cat leaped upon the squirrel and broke its back. The 
young animal-trainer cried as though his heart would 
break, and prophecy remained unfulfilled. 

The loft in the Conwell cabin where Charles and Rus- 
sell slept was uncarpeted. The winter's snow found gap- 
ing crevices in the weather-boarding through which it 
drifted in ridges across the bedclothes, and the loose- 
jointed shingles afforded abundant opportunity for wakeful 
eyes to become acquainted with the stars. A thunder- 
storm among those rugged peaks of Western Massachu- 
setts is no mock battle, but an awe-inspiring, ear-split- 
ting, earth-shaking engagement of Nature's heaviest guns. 
After each crash of the heavenly' artillery the stranger 
wonders how many more there will be before the King of 
Terror lifts those mountains on his little finger and drops 
them over into chaos. But Russell was in his element 
when the fulminating Thor visited Eagle's Nest. When 
a thunder-storm would come up suddenly in the dead of 
night he would spring out of bed, pause at the window 
for a moment, gazing with rapt admiration into the dark- 
ness ; then, led by some strange and inexplicable impulse, 
plunge out into the storm, finding in those terrible flashes 
of light satisfaction for a deep craving in his nature for 
which naught else did suffice, and with which less roman- 
tic natures have little sympathy. That " childhood showed 
the man as morning shows the day" was true in his case 



Boyhood 37 

only to those who knew his animating motive, native 
talent, and spirit of self-sacrifice. The neighbors looked 
upon him as " nothing more than ordinary folks, only very 
peculiar." Mr. William C. Higgins, of North Blandford, 
Mass., who was a soldier in Mr. Conwell's command dur- 
ing the Civil War, has given us this fascinating and truth- 
ful picture of Conwell's boyhood: " The old sugar-house 
in the forest, where he used to gather maple sap in the 
spring, and where through long nights he fed the caldron 
fire and read borrowed books by the flickering* light, is 
still standing, I think. He cared but little for hunting, 
but took the prize in four or five contests at shooting 
matches, and has received several prizes at city matches 
since. But he enjoyed picking wild berries, and long ex- 
peditions into the woods, or nights and days of fishing at 
the ponds or lakes which filled so many of our mountain 
crests. Every lurking-place for trout in all the cascades, 
pools, and eddies of the streams about the neighborhood 
he was familiar with. But how he managed to get any 
time for such things was ever a surprise. He must have 
played truant sometimes ; and the way he could write his 
father's name when skating one day on the mill-pond at 
the village led his father to say : ' Such things are not done 
without practice, and I guess I'll set him to peeling bark 
in the new clearing. ' 

" He was a powerful swimmer, but he could get none of 
the boys to race with him in that sport. I heard of sev- 
eral cases where he saved persons from drowning by his 
skill as a swimmer. In one case at Norwich Pond he 
swam over a mile to an upset boat, and dived three times, 
bringing up a man and a boy who had gone down the 



3 8 Russell H. Conwell 

second time. He had a gift for inventing or improvising 
fishing apparatus, oars, boats, coasting sleighs, household 
and farm utensils, and all sorts of wind and water toys. 
He loved such pastimes, and his father often punished him 
with a rod for his persistence in their construction. The 
only time his father ever asked his pardon, as I have 
heard, was after he had whipped Russell for leaving the 




THE HOMESTEAD — " EAGLE* S NEST " 

cider apples out in the frost while he worked on an im- 
proved ox sled which afterward was of great practical use. 
" The fierce winter storms, which in these mountains 
and this climate are often long and wild, were to Russell a 
delight. He was out in the coldest weather, and driving 
snow-storms were no hindrance to his lonely excursions. 
Often covered with icy sleet, and' sliding on snow-drifts 
deeper than his length, he found his way to the woods, or 
to the school, or to the pickerel holes on the ponds, with- 
out fear or complaint. He was often the first thought of 
a neighbor, and always the first volunteer, when a sheep 



Boyhood 39 

or calf had been lost in the hills or forests ; and one of his 
old neighbors tells me that he remembers one night in a 
rocky pasture, two miles away from any house, where at 
dawn Russell found a neighbor's lost cow nearly buried in 
the snow of the sudden storm. His love for coasting on 
the icy crust in the winter, when a smooth slab or two 
barrel-staves served as a sleigh, was a positive passion. 
The steepest hillsides and the many dangerous declivities 
and leaps were his attraction ; and like an arrow he would 
dart down from peak to valley with a recklessness. of man- 
ner that led all the old ladies to prophesy that ' Russell 
will get killed one of these days. ' But there seemed to 
be a skill back of all his venturesomeness which brought 
him safe at the foot of the hills." 

The Gonwell home had three rooms. There was a bed 
in the kitchen where father and mother slept, and a trundle 
bed underneath for the small children. A stove stood in 
the middle of the kitchen in later days, but Mr. Conwell 
can remember when they had no stove. In the fireplace 
was the old crane, where hung the lard-kettle at butcher- 
ing time. To the right of the fireplace sat the father's 
arm-chair. A little to his left stood the table upon which 
rested the candle, and to the left of the table Mother 
Conwell sat with her knitting. In the winter-time the 
children would bring up a pan of apples and a pitcher of 
cider from the cellar, set them before the open fire, and 
enjoy the long winter fevening eating, drinking, playing 
games, and listening as their mother read. There was a 
high rock on the hill back of the house, about a hundred 
and fifty yards distant. To the top of that rock Russell 
used often to climb, and from its summit deliver to the 



4<d Russell H. Conwell 

rocks and trees around prepared addresses and impromptu 
harangues. The trees and stones were an audience to 
him, and in his imagination they listened, sighed, or ap- 
plauded as, with excited tones, he approached his perora- 
tion. Before this rostrum stood many a wondering calf, 
devoted sheep, startled colt, and applauding rooster, held 
by some potent mesmeric influence, while the youthful 
admirer of Kossuth poured forth in eloquent strains an 
oration picturesque, perhaps, but no less practical than the 
Philadelphia preacher's sermon on " Be not weary in well- 
doing." 

One day a justice of the peace from Northampton held 
a hearing in Martin Conwell's store. The plaintiff had 
lost a calf with a broken horn and a white face, and a 
neighbor had a calf of this description in his possession. 
The plaintiff declared it to be his own. The case in ques- 
tion was for the purpose of determining the identity of 
said calf. The defendant had been seen driving a white- 
faced calf up the mountain one night just after the plain- 
tiff's calf had wandered away. " The defendant swore to 
his deposition, and swore at the attorney, and finally cursed 
the judge. The case was certainly lost. The defendant 
was a thief and a liar, to all appearances. " During the 
progress of the trial Russell came home from school, se- 
cured a liberal quantity of bread and preserves from the 
pantry, sprawled himself out on the counter with his heels 
in the air, and was listening to the proceedings. At a 
critical juncture he sprang from the counter, regardless of 
disturbing the court, hastened to the barn, and soon ap- 
peared at the door leading a white-faced calf with a broken 
horn. He pushed the protesting animal into the store- 



Boyhood 



41 



room court-house before the eyes of plaintiff and judge. 
It was the lost heifer- Russell had found it with his 
father's cows and kept it for the rightful owner. Russell 
was a great hero then 
among the villagers, 
and every old lady 
prophesied that he 
would be a lawyer. 

Russell's brother, 
Charles H. Conwell, 
was a studious and 
refined, but hard- 
working boy. He 
was afterward with 
Russell at VVilbra- 
ham Academy and at 
Yale College. He 
was in Russell's 
company during the 
war, and graduated 
at the Harvard Sci- 
entific School after 
peace had been de- 
clared. He was for 
a number of years 

on the United States Mississippi survey, but died of con- 
sumption in consequence of exposure in the army, June 
26th, 1869, aged twenty-nine years, leaving a young wife 
to mourn with the Conwell family the loss of a dutiful 
son, an affectionate brother, and a loving husband. 

Russell's only sister, three years younger than himself, 




MRS. LYMAN T. RING 



42 Russell H, Conwell 

to whom he was deeply attached, afterward married Mr. 
Lyman T. Ring, of Huntington, Mass., and now lives, a 
widow, in Westfield. 

After the boys had left home, Martin and Miranda Con- 
well sold their mountain farm at Eagle's Nest, and moved 
to Huntington, where they died, the father May 3d, T874, 
aged sixty-two years, and the mother May 3 1st, 1877, aged 
sixty years. 

"Nobody sits in the little arm-chair, 

It stands in a corner dim; 
But a white-haired mother's gazing there, 

And yearningly thinking of him. 
She sees through the dusk of long ago 

The bloom on her boy's sweet face, 
As she rocks so merrily to and fro 

With a laugh that cheers the place. 

"They were wonderful days, the dear sweet days, 

When the child with coal-black hair 
Was hers to scold, to kiss, and to praise, 

At her knee in the little arm-chair. 
She lost him back in the busy years, 

When the great world caught the man, 
As he strode away past hopes and fears 

To his place in the battle's van." 



CHAPTER V 

EARLY EDUCATION 

" The possibility of human development is man's latest discovery, its con- 
ception his highest thought, the systematic arrangement of the laws and proc- 
esses by which it may be attained the newest science, and the # ideal man in 
which it culminates the sublimest spectacle in Nature. Man has ever longed 
to walk the earth a king, and by modern processes of development he may 
now crown himself. He may ascend a throne not by external force, but by 
a power generated in his own breast. He may rise from a condition of dis- 
tasteful drudgery to one of satisfaction and fulness of joy. He may mul- 
tiply himself and increase his powers tenfold. " — Dr. Silas S. Neff. 

That which is the most noticeable in the education of 
Russell H. Conwell is the extent to which he apparently 
increased his native talent by hard study, in conformity to 
normal methods, in defiance of adverse circumstances. 
He is a conspicuous illustration of the fact that physical 
exertion is indispensable to intellectual and moral health. 
Circumstances compelled him to study while engaged in 
manual labor, or else remain ignorant. He did not stand 
high in his classes in school. He was always a law unto 
himself. He adopted certain methods of gaining informa- 
tion and evolving his true self not from any contempt of 
rule, nor disrespect for his instructors, but from the dic- 
tates of his own conscience and the bent of his genius. 
He was fortunate in receiving instruction from tw r o persons 
who understood the true mission of a teacher. They were 
not mere instructors — they were educators. They not only 



44 



Russell H. Conwell 



gave facts ; they developed power. They taught the prom- 
ising youth what he ought to know, and used methods best 
adapted to calling out the latent possibilities which they 
saw in this young magazine of energy. Miss Celina S. 
Cole was a good teacher, but to a Miss Parsons he was 
most indebted. This up-to-date educator knew something 
of the experiments being made by scientists to discover a 




["HE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOU5E 



method of imprinting vividly on the mind without the 
slow process of memorizing. One experiment was to allow 
the eye to rest intently upon an object for a few seconds, 
and then photograph the object off the eye. Miss Parsons 
told the children to read a verse of poetry carefully, then 
shut the eyes and repeat it. " Now, Russell, you read; 
close your eyes and recite what you have read." All was 
darkness. " Try it again." He saw nothing. " Try it 
a third time." After a third reading he handed his book 



Early Education 45 

to a neighbor, repeated the verse verbatim, repeated it 
backward, and gave the punctuation. He saw it all 
clearly before his mind's eye. Soon he could repeat a 
page after one reading, but could not do it with his eyes 
open. Ever afterward he was able, under certain condi- 
tions of mental excitement, to repeat many pages which he 
had not read for years. The ability to call around him 
real or imaginary persons or objects enables him to revel 
in a panorama of fascinating scenes. Always a lover of 
public speaking, he acquired proficiency in the use of lan- 
guage and skill in the arrangement of thought by imagin- 
ing himself before cultured audiences as he paused for a 
moment's rest at the end of a row of corn. The picture 
was so real to him that he felt the necessity for chaste 
language, grammatical accuracy, and incisive illustration, 
thus developing a power which would be of use in the busy 
years toward which he was pressing. 

On a neighboring farm in sight of the Conwell fields 
lived a man of education and erudition, the Reverend Asa 
Niles. He had been a Methodist preacher with a regular 
charge, but, owing to a break-down in health, was farming, 
teaching school during the winter months, and preaching 
occasionally. Mr. Niles's father and Martin Conwell's 
mother were brother and sister. The Niles family is char- 
acterized by a strong memory. This neighbor-cousin of 
the Conwell boys was a graduate of Wilbraham Academy 
and was a great student. He could repeat most of the 
New Testament from memory. He desired the best gifts 
for his own son (now Prof. William H. Niles, of the Mas- 
sachusetts Institute of Technology), and took a warm per- 
sonal interest in teaching the young Conwellian ideas how 



46 Russell H. Con well 

to shoot. He discovered Russell H. Conwell. He ad- 
vised him to carry books in his pockets, so that he might 
improve his mind during every moment he could spare 
from his laborious work on the rocky farm ; and as soon as 
he was satisfied beyond a doubt that Russell would im- 
prove every opportunity within reach, urged upon his cou- 
sin Martin the advisability of allowing the boys the privi- 
lege of attending Wilbraham Academy. However, there 
were years of struggle and close application before the 
ambitious youth darkened the door of any hall of learning. 
It was while hoeing corn in the back field, and committing 
to memory a speech delivered by Kossuth, in which the 
Hungarian patriot expressed his admiration for America — 
" On the scarcely rotted roots of the primitive forests proud 
cities stand, teeming with boundless life, independent as 
the soaring eagle, free as the mountain air " — that Russell 
resolved to be an orator. In that same cornfield, making 
his way from end to end, protecting feeble cornstalks 
against the insolence of weeds, he committed to mem- 
ory Milton's " Paradise Lost" and " Paradise Regained. " 
Wherever Russell went, his books went with him. When 
he could find a little time, he improved it by reading. 
When he came to the end of a row of potatoes he opened 
his book, looked at a paragraph intently for a minute, and 
meditated upon it as he hoed across to the other side. 
Under these healthy conditions many an exalted sentiment 
or useful bit of information became fuel to the fire which 
was welding him to another environment. He organized 
debating societies, learned parliamentary law, and could 
hold his own on the floor against any man in the neighbor- 
hood. Former biographers record that, " When he was 



Early Education 47 

but eight years old, during a time of local excitement over 
some question concerning spiritualism, a crowded audience 
gathered in the Methodist church to listen to his address. " 
All classes respected him, and he was the sensation of the 
valley. The broadening mental horizon resulting from 
this participation in public debate led to his forming the 
habit of writing to prominent men and asking them any- 
thing he wanted to know — a source of anxiety to his mother, 
but of inspiration to himself. When he was a boy of 
twelve years the editor of the Springfield Republican came 
to Worthington Centre to lecture. Next morning when 
the stage stopped at South Worthington the lecturer noticed 
that, among many orders given the driver for purchases in 
Huntington, a countrified boy, with torn hat and patched 
knees, ordered five cents' worth of licorice. Upon return- 
ing to his editorial sanctum he wrote an account of his 
trip, greatly to the disparagement of the rustic folk who 
had used the stage-driver as a means of securing goodies 
not kept upon the shelves of Martin Conwell's grocery 
store. Next week's paper created great indignation among 
the residents of South Worthington, whereupon the future 
foreign correspondent of the Boston Traveller wrote a let- 
ter to the Springfield Republican, saying, " I am the boy 
who ordered the licorice," resenting the slur upon his fel- 
low-townsfolk, and advising his editorship to make his vis- 
its less frequent in the neighborhood of " decent people." 
Seldom during the formative period of the hundreds of 
American boys who have climbed from poverty and obscu- 
rity to position and fame have there been those evidences 
of superior talent which led Bishop Wordsworth to say of 
the Grand Old Man : " No man ever heard Gladstone speak 



48 Russell H. Conwell 

in his student days at Oxford who did not feel that he 
would rise to be Prime Minister of England." On the 
other hand, Conwell's early years illustrate what he after- 
ward wrote of Garfield : " Neither precocious nor dull as 
a child, he was regarded as a boy having good common 
sense and doing his work well. Such a childhood is, as a 
rule, more prophetic of greatness than astonishing bril- 
liancy or eccentricity." His future was veiled from him, 
but, come what might, he resolved that he would not spend 
his life on that rocky farm. By early rising, hard work, 
persevering endeavor; by personally grappling with the 
task before him, he learned his greatest lessons of life, so 
that his education consisted not in the information he 
gathered from books, but came as a never-ending series of 
experiences, was interwoven into the very fiber of his na- 
ture, and had the positive accent of the inevitable about it. 
Knowledge is not power, but a possession, just as money 
is a possession. Knowledge is of but little value in itself. 
It is our use of knowledge in making ourselves a power 
that renders its acquisition desirable. Solomon, in com- 
mon with the philosophers of all ages, saw the relation 
between knowledge and the uses to which it is to be put, 
and gave as his superlative admonition, " Get wisdom. " 
The foundation of Conwell's career as an orator who would 
tell people what they needed to know and in such a man- 
ner as to fasten it in their memory was laid during his 
days of hard work, with brief periods of study, on the 
farm. He appreciated what he learned. " It is not what 
we know, but how we think and feel about what we know, 
that gives us power," says President Neff, who is a special- 
ist in the hows and whys of mental development. One 



Early Education 49 

thing Russell Conwell proved : that the power to do hard 
work is so near akin to genius that many people cannot tell 
them apart. He attended the district school during the 
winter months, but was always too busy with other things 
to stand high in his classes. He was seldom at the head, 
usually near the foot, occasionally in a section by himself. 
He learned to play the organ and piano when quite young, 
and when old enough to join the "fast set," frequently 
played the cornet at balls. He taught singing classes even 
prior to college days, and led the choir in the Methodist 
church. The young orator early learned that a good way 
to get rid of a petty or ridiculous notion was to hold it up 
to ridicule. His musical ability came conspicuously into 
notice among his boyhood friends through his habit of 
writing a poem on some neighborhood gossip or personal 
peculiarity, adapting it to some familiar tune, and ren- 
dering it with side-splitting effect on a public occasion. 
Many a laugh echoed through those mountains as Russell 
brought down the house by some local and timely allusion. 
Many a face turned all the colors of the rainbow, and more 
than one old maid resolved to " shake that young upstart " 
after seeing her face in Russell's looking-glass. The fre- 
quent amateur theatricals and school exhibitions were his 
great delight. They awoke in his aspiring breast a pas- 
sionate desire for the stage — not an unnatural desire to 
one of his powers of imitation. 

He has frequently alluded in his lectures to an incident 
which effectually cured him of any desire he might have 
previously entertained of being an actor. He was hauling 
maple sugar to Huntington, a station on the Boston and 
Albany Railroad, nine miles from his home. This incident 



50 Russell HL Conwell 

has been embalmed in " The Temple and Templars" by 
the most improved process known to the genius of our gen- 
ial friend, Robert J. Burdette. Having too much respect 
for a mummy to remove his close-fitting costume, the pres- 
ent narrator invites the reader to review the remains of 
ConwelFs theatrical ambition in the dress in which it was 
last exhibited to the public : 

" Down deep in the valley between starting-point and 
terminus of the line, a dense woodland veiled the way in 
solitude and silence. The very place, thought the suckling 
Roscius, for a rehearsal. A beautiful grade, thought that 
noble animal, the horse, to trot a little and make up time. 
Young Ouintus had been cast for the part of a crazy man — 
a character admirably adapted for the entire cast of the 
average amateur dramatic performance. He had very lit- 
tle to say, a sort of ' The-carriage-waits-my-lord ' decla- 
mation, but he had to say it with thrilling and startling 
earnestness. He was to rush in on a love scene bubbling 
like a mush-pot with billing and cooing, and paralyze the 
lovers by shrieking: 'Woe! woe! unto ye all, ye chil- 
dren of men ! ' Throwing his arms up high in air after 
the manner of Fourth-of-July orators' justly celebrated 
imitation of the windmill gesture, he roared: 'Woe! 
woe ! unto ye ' 

"That was as far as the declamation got, although the 
actor went considerably farther. The obedient horse, 
never averse to standing still in season or out of season, 
planted his feet on the firm earth and stood there, motion- 
less as a painted horse upon a painted highway. Roscius 
H. Conwell, obedient to the laws of inertia, made a para- 
bola over the dashboard, landed on the back of the patient 



Early Education 5 1 

horse, ricocheted to the ground, cutting his forehead on 
the shaft as he descended, scar whereof he carries unto 
this day, and plunged into a yielding cushion of mud at the 
roadside. He returned home, looking as though he had 
'made up' for the part of a man who had fallen into a 
threshing machine with the wheat and come out with the 
straw. The family received him with such sympathetic 
and irritating comments, such exasperating and derisive 
tenderness as greet a man when, by mischance, he falls 
down the cellar stairs with the barrel of potatoes. Rus- 
sell washed off the blood and mud as if it were powder and 
grease paint. He had seen stars at a rehearsal; that was 
enough ; he would never see the footlights of the stage, 
himself a star, or the support of one ; not even the smallest 
satellite in the galaxy." 



CHAPTER VI 

ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 

It was in July, 1858, as the Conwell boys were harvest- 
ing their crop of hay in one of the fields on their rocky 
farm, and the Reverend Asa and William H. Niles were 
engaged in a similar occupation on the Niles farm adjoin- 
ing, that the progressive dominie hitched his horses to the 
fence and came over into the Conwell field to persuade 
Martin Conwell to allow Charles and Russell to go to Wil- 
braham Academy that fall with his son William, who had 
been there the year before. It was an important day in 
the life of Russell H. Conwell. The father and mother lay 
awake long into the night thinking, praying, and planning 
for the boys. They could give them so little, it seemed 
cruel to send them away from home. Next morning the 
father's prayer, " That the world might be better for the 
children having lived in it," had a new meaning to all 
the family. The mother said little. She wanted her boys 
to have an education. No sacrifice was too great for her 
to make for her children. But there was the breaking of 
home ties at an age when the boys needed good influence, 
and who would watch over them at Wilbraham? She be- 
lieved, however, she could trust them anywhere. She had 
faith in the watchfulness of Dr. Raymond, principal of the 
academy. After some little time it was agreed to let them 
go. That September witnessed the passing of the Rubicon. 



Academy and College 53 

Henceforth at whatever cost an education must be secured. 
When they arrived at Wilbraham, poverty, long hours, and 
hard work met them at the door ; and while there was the 
opportunity to secure an education, there was necessity for 
most rigid economy in order to live. The boys boarded 
themselves. Frequently a box arrived from home with 
bread, pies, and apples to help out their scanty living. 
For periods of three weeks at a time they lived on corn- 
meal and milk. Russell worked for the farmers near by, 
and only by stinting themselves to the point of starvation 
did the boys pull through two terms of the academy year. 
At times the experiences of this thin, awkward, country 
boy were bitter in the extreme. He remarked in later 
years : " My father never knew how we boys suffered at 
Wilbraham." He was always a very independent student. 
His whole purpose was to gain information and discipline 
his mind, not to get the lessons by heart nor to stand well 
in his classes. He kept on his book-shelves the limit of 
volumes he was allowed to borrow from the library, and 
not unfrequently became absorbed in his reading, to the det- 
riment of classroom work. One instance is recorded of 
Conwell's absorption in special study to the extent of 
cutting recitations for several days. The teachers reported 
him to the principal. Dr. Raymond's reply was : "I do 
not know what Conwell is doing, but of one thing I am 
sure — he is not idle." After visiting the student's room 
and finding him busy on some special study, the wise prin- 
cipal reported to the teachers : " Conwell is working out his 
own education in his own way, and it isn't worth while to 
disturb him." Mr. Fay, for a time Russell's room-mate, 
leaves a testimonial to his independence as a student. 



54 



Russell H. Conwell 



" Sitting over his Greek one day, he suddenly pushed 
away the text-book and lexicon lying on the table before 
him, saying: i Lie there until I call for you. And it will 
be a long time before I will want you again.' ' But,' 

protested his room- 
mate, 4 y on ca n't 
get through without 
your Greek and 
Latin. They won't 
graduate you.' 
1 Won't they ? ' was 
the reply. ' Then 
they can keep me 
right here. But I am 
done with Greek ; T 
can do better with 
my time here. 

During academy 
and college days he 
utilized his wonder- 
ful faculty of pho- 
tographic memory, 
a power which has 
always been more or less spasmodic and conditioned upon 
circumstances. He would study a few pages intently for 
a few minutes, the vividness of first impressions seeming 
to be one of the prerequisites to success, then hand his 
book to his chum, with the request : " Professor Fay, please 
favor me with your criticisms." Pacing the room to and 
fro, he would then recite page after page with striking ac- 
curacy and fine rendering of the spirit and sense of the work. 




CAPTAIN COX WELL 



Academy and College $$ 

The debating societies welcomed Conwell. He was a 
champion debater; could turn his opponent's arguments to 
his own account with ease; witty, apt at repartee, always 
good-natured, seldom cutting in his gladiatorial thrusts, and 
with a propensity for espousing the weaker side. He had 
an orator's nervousness. That sensitiveness to the pres- 
ence of others which frequently manifests itself in stage 
fright, and which is characteristic of all great orators, is a 
great power when brought, under proper control. No man 
who is indifferent to the presence of another personality 
can ever awaken an audience from its moral lethargy or 
move it to sublime action. The awkward boy from the 
country, who felt keenly the ostracism incident upon his 
poverty and poor clothes, was naturally anxious to make a 
good impression and win the respect of his fellow-students 
in his first attempt at public debate. He made the com- 
mon mistake of believing he could do his best by memo- 
rizing his speech. He arose with a divided mind — partly 
on the thought and partly on the language in which he 
had intended to express his thought. Alas for a house 
divided against itself ! Alas for a debater or lecturer who 
does not know that the highest success in public speech 
is possible only when he launches into extemporaneous 
delivery of previously carefully prepared material. An 
attempt to commit language is fatal to many minds. 
The speech in question contained one exclamation 
which produced a powerful impression in the Virginia 
House of Burgesses, but was destined to produce another 
sort in the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass. 
Conwell's wonderful memory forsook him. His mind was 
a perfect blank. He arose and addressed the chair, turned 



56 Russell H. Conwell 

all colors, tears filled his eyes, his tongue cleaved to the roof 
of his mouth. "Ahem!" — that speech was gone. Only 
one sentence was left, and by a master-stroke he might yet 
save the day. He gathered his strength for one supreme 
effort, and shouted, " Give me liberty or give me death ! " 
and sat down, not caring very much which they gave him 
so they gave it to him right away and plenty of it. 

The extreme poverty of the Conwell boys would not per- 
mit them to remain at Wilbraham through the entire school 
year. During the spring term of both academic years Rus- 
sell taught school, one term near South Worthington, and 
one term at Blandford. Among his pupils at Blandford 
was a boisterous, profane, and impudent bully who had 
been the cause of former teachers resigning their position. 
The new teacher endeavored to treat him kindly, and after 
repeated acts of insubordination warned the young man 
that if he did not change his course he would land in the 
penitentiary some day. It was not long, however, before 
his ill-behavior brought the culprit to a choice between 
standing up and being whipped before the whole school in 
modest submission, or receiving such a beating as would 
secure order to the schoolroom for the remainder of the 
term. A terrific fight ensued. The athletic young teacher 
kept his promise and administered orthodox correction, 
"forty stripes save one," knocked him down, carried him 
to the door, and kicked him out into the snow. It was 
the sensation of the neighborhood, causing some of the 
patrons to suggest that the young teacher resign. But the 
people rallied, and protested to the school board that the 
right man had been found for their school, and should be 
supported. So it was. Thirty-five years later, the pastor 



Academy and College §y 

of the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, was asked to head 
a petition to get this same evil-doer out of Sing Sing 
prison. 

During the summer months Russell worked on his 
father's farm, but pursued his studies with such dili- 
gence as to gain a term in the academy for every one he 
lost 

In the fall of i860 the Conwell boys went to Yale, 
where they worked as hard, suffered as much, and studied 
later at night than at Wilbraham. The object? of a col- 
lege education, as outlined by President Gilman, of Johns 
Hopkins University, are : 

" 1. Concentration, or the ability to hold the mind ex- 
clusively and persistently to one object. 

" 2. Distribution, or the power to arrange and classify 
known facts. 

" 3. Retention, or the power to hold facts. 

" 4. Expression, or the pbwer to tell what you know. 

" 5. Power of judgment, or making sharp discrimination 
between that which is accidental and that which is essen- 
tial." 

Whatever Russell's standing in his class, or however 
many recitations he neglected, he secured these results. 
The end of a college education is character, and character 
is what a man is in the dark. More definitely, as Professor 
Geikie has defined it : " Character is the stamp upon the 
soul of the free choices we have made of good or evil dur- 
ing our lives." What a boy chooses — his habits of life, 
his mastery of self, his methods of study during the for- 
mative period between fourteen and twenty-one — has much 
to do with his future career. The subject of this story, 



58 Russell H. Con well 

who stands before the world at the age of fifty-six with the 
double dowry of a great brain and a great heart, did not 
drink, smoke, cheat, nor swear when a young man, nor ever 
afterward. It will be of interest to many who read this 
book to see the testimony of ex- President White, of Cor- 
nell University. He says : " Let me say that I never 
knew a young student to smoke cigarettes who did not 
disappoint expectations. I have watched this for thirty 
years, and cannot recall a single exception to the rule." 

Russell was at Yale the fall and winter terms of 1 860-6 1 
and 1861-62. During the spring terms of both these years 
he taught the district school, and vocal and instrumental 
music, at West Granville, Mass. While carrying the 
classics and law at the same time, he did a great deal of 
hard work for the farmers near New Haven. One fall he 
harvested a whole field of corn, and he did any kind of 
rough work he could secure while keeping up with his 
classes in two courses in the university. 

Mr. Jeremiah Z. Harding, who knew Conwell at Yale, 
has told us just what we want to know concerning his Yale 
experiences : 

" He was a rough country boy then. He was*as poor as 
a stray cat — 'countrified ' is no name for it. All the boys 
tried hard not to giggle in his face when he used to come 
arcoss from Dr. Strong's, where he boarded, to join in the 
singing on the Chapel Street fence. But he had the repu- 
tation of being an odd genius of great talent, so the boys 
let him alone. He was as bashful as a sensitive plant, and 
reticent as the historical clam. I can remember well those 
long awkward legs, the bushy hair, and the irregular front 
teeth. 



Academy and College 59 

" His brother Charles was in the Scientific School, and 
was older. He was delicate and affable, and the professors 
took to him cordially. But Russell was as silent as a 
sphinx. He was the very last one you would suppose 
would be a world-known orator. 

" If I remember right, he never registered in the classical 
course ; Burdette says it was because he was too poor to 
pay the tuition. Anyhow, he did not go into the clubs 
nor into the class secret orders. I think he and his brother 
boarded themselves a while. Russell taught school winters 
and taught music evenings. He was quite expert with the 
organ, and had a good basso voice. He had a powerful 
physique, and the boat club tried hard to get him into the 
crew, but I feel sure he drew out after some practice. He 
seemed to be too diffident and too ashamed of his poverty, 
or too busy, to join in any of the usual sports. But there 
was a quiet jollity about the fellow which sprang out in 
most unexpected and comic connections. 

" He was a most powerful student. I do not think he 
could have paid the professors much for his tutoring. But 
he secured all the help he needed to keep plumb up with 
the classical course and the law course at the same time. 
He could study all day and all night. With a strangely 
literal memory, he could recite page after page of Virgil, 
Homer, and Blackstone. Poetry just reeled out of his 
mouth like cord off a bobbin. The law-school fellows 
knew him only as ' that Conwell/ and seemingly lost sight 
of him when he enlisted in the army." 

While at Yale he seldom appeared in debates or the 
moot courts, being too poor to dress to his taste. He, 
however, became suddenly famous in 1861 as a patriotic 



60 Russell H. Conwell 

speaker. Many towns sent for him to help raise their 
quotas of soldiers. He would go up to Western Massa- 
chusetts in the afternoon, make one or more addresses that 
evening, and be back in New Haven next morning. Upon 
his third appearance in Whitman Hall, Westfield, he made 
an impression which the citizens of that place have not yet 
forgotten. Two prominent lawyers preceded him, but the 
audience was restless to hear "the boy." He came for- 
ward amid most deafening applause, held the audience 
spellbound, and was seemingly inspired by miraculous 
powers. At the close of his address thirty-six bouquets 
were thrown upon the stage, and men rushed forward from 
all parts of the hall to enlist. 

It is difficult to realize that this was a youth of eigh- 
teen, and hard to believe that he was not spoiled. But no 
man whose heart is burning with noble purpose and con- 
secrated to unselfish endeavor can be puffed up. Mr. 
Conwell from the very opening of his career has been too 
earnest a man ever to think of self. 

As a school-teacher he was unusually popular. He had 
a faculty for making the driest subjects interesting, and 
the students loved him with an everlasting love. We 
print a programme of one of his school exhibitions. The 
reader will observe an evident intention to give the audi- 
ence the worth of their money. One of the names ap- 
pearing upon this programme was destined to be associated 
with that of Conwell for a few short years of earthly pil- 
grimage. During the school term of the spring of 1862 
he made the most eloquent speech of his life to an audi- 
ence of one, as the result of which a beautiful and lovely 
girl promised to be his bride. Beautiful days of the spring- 



Academy and College 61 

tide of life ! Summer, fall, and winter were yet to come ; 
but now the birds were singing, flowers were blooming. 
The meadows were green with verdure and the trees put 
forth their foliage. 

"How all the other passions fleet to air, 
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, 
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy ! 

love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy: 
In measure rein thy joy, scant thy excess; 

1 feel too much thy blessing, make it less 

For fear I surfeit ! " 



EXHIBITION 

BEECH HILL, 

March 19, 1862. 



SALUTATORY ADDRESS Master John Ripley 

Declamation Dexter Peebles | Declamation Elihu Peebles 

TABLEAUX. 

Declamation George Peebles j Declamation James Penders 

DIALOGUE. 

Sammy George Peebles I Mary Roxy Farnham 

Tommy Johnny Ripley | Jane Mary Ripley 

Declamation Siias Ripley | Declamation Joseph Hay den 

DRAMA, 

JVIU$DE$ WlLtli OUT I 



Bones Hyatt Coe 

Newton Marvin Hall 

Henry R. H. Conwell 

Jacob Leroy Warfield 

Sammy Charlie Farnham 



Waiter Oscar Peebles 

Eliza Jane Hayden 

Susan Ellen Peebles 

Sarah Amy Peebles 

Ghost Libie H. Ripley 



TABLEAUX. 

Declamation, . .Charlie Farnham | Declamation YVm. Howard 

TABLEAUX. 

Declamation Henry Ripley | Declamation Wm. H. Adams 

TABLEAUX. 

Declamation Oscar Peebles | Declamation Albert Peebles 

FARCE, 

More Blunders Than One ! 



Young Melbourne.. . .Hyatt Coe 
Old Melbourne. . ..Henry Ripley 
TRAP , Lorenzo Noble 



Larry Russell Conwell 

Louisa Louise Warfield 

Susan Anna Warfield 



Letty. Jennie Hayden 

SONG. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SOLDIER 

Concerning Mr. Con well's war record there has been 
much misunderstanding and some criticism. It was a 
great pleasure to us to find that the facts vindicate the 
" Boy Captain " from a charge which some of his critics 
have seemed to take pleasure in repeating. 

As was mentioned in a previous chapter, Russell fre- 
quently organized military companies among his playmates 
when a boy. One of the relics of childhood days, upon 
which old Father Time has had mercy, is a wooden sword 
which Russell made out of a board when he was ten years 
of age. While a boy he studied the tactics until he could 
order any maneuvers. He did not expect to use them, 
but had a fondness for drill, and studied just for the sake 
of knowing. 

Soon after the outbreak of the war in 1861 he enlisted 
in the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteers ; but his 
father considered him too young, and secured his release. 
By the summer of 1862 Martin Con well had changed his 
mind. He was a strong anti-slavery man, and his home 
had been a station on the " underground railway." The 
first time Russell ever saw Fred Douglass was one moon- 
light night when a boy he leaped from his bed at hearing 
voices in the yard, and, standing by the window, saw his 
father, Fred Douglass, and a poor trembling slave, whom 



64 Russell H. Conwell 

Douglass had brought from Springfield, and whom Martin 
Conwell conveyed to the next station during the night. 
Martin Conwell had prayed for the liberation of the slaves 
every morning in the same breath in which he had plead 
with God that the world might be better in consequence 
of his children having lived in it. And so when the nation 
needed men in 1862, and a company of volunteers from the 
neighboring towns of Worthington, Plainfield, Chester- 
field, Huntington, Chester, Middlefield, Russell, and Bland- 
ford wanted Russell for their captain, Martin gave his 
consent. Russell was in demand in several towns as an 
officer, but he raised a company which was afterward let- 
tered " F " in the Forty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, 
though its members were popularly known as " The Moun- 
tain Boys." No one thought of canvassing for the office 
of captain against the boy who had captivated so many 
audiences and occasioned the enlistment of scores of men. 
He was elected captain by a unanimous vote, and a com- 
mittee was appointed to wait on Governor Andrew and 
endeavor to persuade him to commission Russell notwith- 
standing his youth. The effort was successful. This was 
in the summer of 1862, and Russell was nineteen the pre- 
vious February. A grand banquet was given the soldiers 
at Huntington, Mass., their place of rendezvous, just pre- 
vious to their departure for war. At the table Russell 
made one of his characteristically eloquent speeches, and 
an eye-witness says, so many men endeavored to enlist that 
even his own brother Charles had to go with the overflow 
into another company. Charles was afterward transferred 
to Company F, and became its clerk. The company went 
into camp at Camp Banks, near Springfield, and were at 



The Soldier 65 

once initiated into the hardships of war — hungry, cold, the 
ground for a bed and a spadeful of earth for a pillow. 
Russell loaned his new military overcoat to a boy by the 
name of Porter, and rolled himself in a tent cloth. Colonel 
Bowler was the commander, Col. W. S. Shurtleff lieuten- 
ant-colonel, and Colonel Walkley was the major. At 
Camp Banks, Captain Conwell was presented with a costly 
gold-sheathed sword by his devoted company, and made a 
passionately eloquent reply to Colonel Shurtleff s speech 
of presentation. The sword bore the inscription : " Pre- 
sented to Capt. Russell H. Conwell by the soldiers of 
Company F, Forty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 
known as ' The Mountain Boys. ' Vera amicitia est sem- 
piterna [True friendship is eternal]." According to a 
printed account, " Conwell received the sword in silence. 
Drawing the glittering steel from its sheath of gold, he 
held it aloft in his outstretched hand, the sunlight kissing 
the naked blade into flashes of fire. His eyes were fixed 
upon the steel as a rapt seer, beholding in 'that lovely 
messenger of death,' as in a mirror, terrible pictures of 
grand and thrilling meaning. Breathless silence fell upon 
the listening soldiers. Thus for a little space he stood 
impressive, mysterious, statuesque. His lips parted, and 
he spoke to the sword. He called upon the shade of the 
sword of that mighty warrior Joshua, which purified a pol- 
luted land with libations of blood and made it fit for the 
heritage of God's people; the sword of David, that estab- 
lished the kingdom of Israel ; the sword of that resistless 
conqueror, Alexander, that pierced the heart of the Orient ; 
the Roman short sword, the terrible gladius, that carved 
out for the Caesars the sovereignty of the world ; the sword 



66 Russell H. Conwell 

of Charlemagne, writing its master's glorious deeds in 
mingled chapters of fable and history; the sword of Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, smiting the battalions of the puissant 
Wallenstein with defeat and overthrow even when its mas- 
ter lay dead on the field of Liitzen; the sword of Wash- 
ington, drawn for human freedom, and sheathed in peace,, 
honor, and victory. Then he bade the sword remember all 
it had done in shaping the destinies of men and nations ; 
how it had written on the tablets of history, in letters red 
and lurid, the drama of the ages. Closing, he called upon 
it now, in the battle for the Union, to strike hard and 
strike home for freedom, for justice, in the name of God 
and the Right ; to fail not in the work to which it was 
called until every shackle in the land was broken, every 
bondman free, and every foul stain of dishonor cleansed 
from the flag." 

Upon leaving Camp Banks, the regiment went by train 
to Boston, was received by the governor and quartered in 
Faneuil Hall, destined for sendee in North Carolina. En 
route for North Carolina, by steamer, the regiment experi- 
enced a rough and stormy time, with much sea-sickness. 
The test of the heart is trouble, and not until the dreadful 
days of sickness and danger did Company F realize of 
what sterling metal their captain was made. He was tire- 
less in ministering to the comfort of his men, and gave 
away the greater part of his salary, or expended it for sut- 
ler stores for the sick. His soldiers were passionately de- 
voted to him. After the company had arrived at New- 
berne, N. C, in the enemy's country, the young captain 
felt deeply his responsibility, and spared no effort to fit his 
men for effective service. The men would rather drill with 



The Soldier 67 

Conwell two hours than with any other officer one half- 
hour. He had a faculty for making everything attractive 
and infusing spirit into his men. In drilling he would 
march the soldiers up to the edge of a pond or thicket, and 
then by some unexpected movement extricate them from a 
seemingly hopeless tangle, awakening their fascinated in- 
terest and appealing to their admiration, while inspiring 
implicit confidence. 

In the army Conwell exhibited his characteristic trait of 
willigness to sacrifice himself for the comfort *of others. 
While the regiment was drilling on^day the colonel noticed 
that many soldiers of Company F were marching far out of 
their places in order to avoid a deep mud-hole, and marched 
them back and forth a number of times in order to compel 
them to stay in their places regardless of mud. Conwell 
saw the colonel's idea, and marched himself straight into 
the slimy pool deeper than his waist. It saved his men. 
He was always popular with the rank and file. Frequently 
he messed with his men, and awakened the jealousy of other 
officers with whom he refused to drink. He studied every 
spare moment he could find. One volume of Blackstone 
he committed to memory during this first enlistment. 
Gen. Horace C. Lee was acting brigadier-general. After 
several weeks of camp and garrison duty Company F was 
marched off on the Goldsboro expedition, too familiar to 
students of history to justify extended mention here. The 
Mountain Boys saw the first blood spilled at Kingston, N. 
C, and fought at the bridge on the Weldon railroad below 
Goldsboro, where the enemy had massed a large body of 
troops, who gave savage battle but were dislodged by the 
" Yanks." Conwell showed his bravery to the point of 



■■■■■-••I-, , 



— • i.) 



1 . 1 E UTEN ANT-COLONEL CONWEL 



The Soldier 69 

recklessness. He was daring and forgetful of self in 
action. One of his company described him to us as being 
" born reckless." When the Union soldiers were cheering 
after the victory, Conwell remained silent. Colonel Walk- 
ley asked him why he did not shout with the rest. " Too 
many hearts made sad to-day," was his brief reply. Brav- 
ery, originality, and sympathy characterized the boy cap- 
tain. During the Gum Swamp expedition the company 
marched through miles of muck and water, into which they 
sank up to their knees at every step. Many l^y down in 
the water and died. Others fainted from sickening ex- 
haustion. Conwell insisted on going back into the swamp 
for two of his men who had been lost, and came out with 
one man, having marked the trees so that the other could 
be found by comrades. During this same campaign, when 
a company was needed for dangerous picket duty, Conwell 
offered the colonel $25 to allow Company F to be chosen. 
Bogue Sound, four miles from Newport, was frequented by 
rebels. Conwell chose twelve of his men and went on a 
scouting expedition. When they came near the enemy, 
Conw r ell ordered his men to lie down, and went nearer to 
reconnoiter. Noticing a colonel of a North Carolina regi- 
ment jump behind a tree, he ran to the other side, and, 
reaching as far around as the length of his arm, fired. 
The enemy returned the compliment from the opposite 
side. This rotary method of salutation was repeated 
twice by each party, the third shot of the enemy lodging 
in Conwell's shoulder. At this juncture the rebel colonel 
ran and was shot by the men who were rushing to their 
captain's rescue. When the party returned to camp the 
surgeon said the shot In Captain Conwell's shoulder would 



jo Russell H. Conwell 

do no harm, and little attention was paid to the wound. 
When facing the enemy one afternoon and awaiting or- 
ders, the daring captain suggested to one of his men that 
he climb a tree and see where the enemy was located. He 
refused, whereupon the captain mounted to a lofty limb 
and was turning his spy-glass on a neighboring wood 
when an angry superior officer named a district where it 
never snows, and ordered Captain Zacchaeus down. 

Conwell returned home at the close of his nine months' 
enlistment, at which time his company was given a re- 
ception in the hall at Worthington Centre which he so 
graphically describes in "Acres of Diamonds." He was 
sick with a dangerous fever during the greater part of the 
summer of 1863. When his health was restored he en- 
listed for three years, and was assigned the command of a 
company in the Second Massachusetts Artillery. He was 
sent to Fort Macon, N. C, and was afterward placed in 
command of a fort at Newport Barracks. 

One night Captain Conwell and his orderly, Mr. Daniel 
E. Spencer, went out at midnight to make the rounds of 
the sentries. In the neighborhood of a post near Canada 
Mills they heard a noise in the bushes, and a voice called 
out : " Halt ! Who goes there ? " " A friend ! " There 
was no further reply, and directing Spencer to stand quiet, 
he went deeper into the woods to investigate. Suddenly 
he found himself in the midst of a number of men creep- 
ing stealthily along the ground, and a volley revealed a 
group of Confederates. Conwell stood his ground, and 
Spencer leaped bravely forward to his captain's aid. By 
rapid firing they put the enemy to flight, although in the 
darkness neither party could estimate the strength of the 



The Soldier 71 

other. On reaching the picket post, Captain Conwell 
found that several bullets had pierced his uniform, one had 
gone through the top of his hat, and one had shattered his 
watch directly over his heart. 

For three months the soldiers at Newport Barracks had 
had no pay, and were in a suffering condition. Captain 
Conwell wrote to the paymaster at Newberne for their pay, 
and received a reply stating that if he would come to New- 
berne with the pay-roll properly signed he could have it. 
Conwell went to the adjutant-general and secured a pass 
through the lines to Newberne. Boy as he was, he thought 
a pass answered every purpose of a permit to be absent 
from his post. He had gone but twenty of the thirty 
miles when he met a Union officer, who said : " Your men 
are in a fight." Conwell tried to go back by rail, but the 
train was hours late, and he sent his orderly to Newberne 
for orders from a superior officer. The word came back : 
" Come on to Newberne." By evening the whole country 
was full of Confederates, and Conwell had to go miles out 
of his way, riding all night, to get to Newberne. 

Captain Conwell's private assistant and official caretaker 
of accouterments was a boy from Western Massachusetts 
by the name of John H. Ring. This young patriot had 
been determined to go to war, and his father, who was a 
custom-house officer in Boston, had brought him to camp 
and put him under Conwell's care. Johnny had promised 
his mother on her death-bed that he would read his Bible 
every day. Conwell was at this time an atheist and pre- 
tended not to believe in the Bible. He commanded Johnny 
not to read "that Book" in his presence. Johnny loved 
his captain, but he loved his God more, and was faithful 



72 Russell H. Con well 

to the promise he had made his sainted mother. The 
captain, getting irritated by the boy's disobedience, further 
forbade him to read the Book in his tent at any time, and 
finally forbade him to read it at all, anywhere. Part of 
Johnny's duty was to care for the captain's tent, and as the 
army regulations required Conwell to wear a sword other 
than the # one presented him at Camp Banks, the costly 
sword with its gold sheath and Latin inscription hung on 
the center-pole of the tent, under Johnny's watchful eye. 
That day, while the captain was on his way to Newberne 
for the soldiers' pay, a large band of Confederate soldiers 
swarmed up against the Union fort, driving the Union sol- 
diers away in hot haste and with terrible havoc. The only 
line of retreat lay across a long railway bridge which 
spanned the river. When the Union soldiers were safely 
across they fired the bridge to prevent pursuit. As the 
flames began to bite into tie and stringer Johnny bethought 
him of the captain's sword, which in the excitement of re- 
treat had been left on the center-pole in the tent. Johnny 
had been true to the promise he had made his mother, true 
to his Bible, true to himself; hence it followed, as the 
night the day, he could not be false to any man. He had 
been commanded to keep the sword ; and now that his cap- 
tain was away in the tangled swamps of North Carolina 
and the sword in danger of falling into the hands of the 
gray- jacketed enemy, who would turn its glittering blade 
against the United States, Johnny must save the sword 
at all hazards. He rushed back over the burning bridge 
against the protest of his comrades ; through smoke and 
flame he made his way to the opposite shore, passed swiftly 
through the lines of the Confederates, reached the tent, 



The Soldier 73 

snatched the sword from its perch ; out he darts and in des- 
peration begins a breathless race for the bridge. He darts 
like a meteor through the rebel lines and is again hurrying 
across the bridge. The fire and smoke were thickest on 
the Union side, where the fire was first lighted, so that 
when Johnny left the rebel shore he was in full view 
of the enemy. " Look at that Yankee with a sword ! " 
"Wing him!" -'Bring him down!" "Halt! Halt!" 
A dozen bullets whistle their death-notes about his head 
and splinter the sleepers under his feet. With devouring 
flames ahead and hissing bullets behind, Johnny presses 
toward the mark for the prize of a high calling. The 
hideous flames singe his hair, blister his face, and burn 
his clothing. To dash through that sea of flame and smoke 
alive he cannot. To surrender the sword he will not. It 
is a tomb of fire. He can endure the suffocation no longer. 
He must have a breath of air. Hurriedly belting the 
sword to his waist, he drops beneath the stringers of the 
bridge and, hanging below the flames, slowly works his way 
along hand over hand. Blazing brands fall upon him. 
His eyes are blinded by the curling smoke. The flesh is 
burned from his fingers. In an agony of desperation he 
takes one more hold upon the smoldering timbers. A 
Confederate field officer appears and commands the soldiers 
to stop firing. Johnny hears the shouts of his comrades : 
11 A little farther ; keep straight on ; you're all right now ! " 
His strength is exhausted ; he can go no farther ; one more 
desperate reach — he drops from the blazing bridge into the 
outstretched arms of his comrades. A mighty shout goes 
up from the Confederates, who have paused in breathless 
admiration to cheer the brave deed of an enemy. Months 



74 Russell H. Conwell 

of angry struggle had taught both North and South what 
they failed to realize in 1861, that when they looked down 
their gleaming muskets into the eyes of a supposed enemy 
they had found at the other end of that musket as brave 
a soldier as ever buckled sword. There was too much 
manhood in the Southern breast, even when flushed with 
victory, to allow a true soldier to fail to appreciate a hero- 
ism so sublime as was exhibited in Johnny's rescue of 
the captain's sword. With swelling hearts and blinding 
tears the defeated soldiers tenderly laid the little hero on 
a gun-carriage and bore him to the hospital at Beaufort, 
where the little armor-bearer met and bravely faced the 
last enemy. He lingered for two days in quivering agony. 
At last he turned his face to the soldier nurse standing by 
his cot. His eyes opened, his expression grew more peace- 
ful, as in clear tones he said : " Give the captain his sword." 
Then having fought a good fight, having kept the faith, 
having endured hardness as a good soldier of Christ, and 
having been faithful unto death both to the Captain of his 
salvation and to the captain of the Second Massachusetts 
Artillery, he went off duty forever. 

It was reported to General Palmer that this day's defeat 
to the Union soldiers might have been avoided if the 
officers had been on duty. An investigation was ordered. 
Conwell was asked for his permit to be absent. He had 
none. He had simply secured a pass through the lines. 
He was put under arrest and kept in Xewberne for two or 
three months, during which time he was asked to raise a 
regiment of loyal North Carolinians. When he had raised 
thirty-nine men he received notice that he had been recom- 
mended to a position on General MacPherson's staff. Con- 



The Soldier 7$ 

well asked General Palmer what he should do, and was told 
to "pick up and go to MacPherson, and not to wait for 
General Butler's decision about the investigation." 

Hastening west, Lieutenant- Colonel Con well reached 
Nashville in June, 1864; then rushing on to the front, re- 
ported to General MacPherson in time to take part in the 
movement against Atlanta. During the battle of Kenesaw 
Mountain Lieutenant-Colonel Conwell, while directing the 
fire of two batteries, was struck by a bursting shell, which 
broke his arm and shoulder. He lay bleeding with his 
head on a rock for some time. When the searching par- 
ties collected the wounded in the evening the unconscious 
officer was supposed to be dead, and was left on the battle- 
field all night. An Iowa soldier, John M. Crooks, of Du- 
buque, who lay beside him, also severely wounded, says 
that he laid his hand on the head of the staff officer at 
some time during the night and " thought the boy was 
dead." The colonel came to consciousness before morn- 
ing, and lay in awful agony, convicted of his sins, and long- 
ing for the prayers of little Johnny Ring. The next day 
he was taken to a hospital at Big Shanty, and there, while 
recovering from his wound, was converted to God. When 
the shell struck him he was an atheist and a scoffer at 
religion. When he came forth from the hospital, haggard 
and weakened by racking pains, he was a follower of the 
meek and lowly Nazarene. 

Ever since those dreadful experiences of war that golden- 
sheathed sword has hung over his bed and been an inspira- 
tion which has urged him on to deeds of heroism worthy 
of so noble a sacrifice as that of little Johnny Ring. 

When Conwell was able to leave the hospital he reported 



y6 Russell H. Conwell 

to General Thomas at Nashville, and was instructed to 
proceed to Washington with a dispatch to General Logan. 
Colonel Conwell repaired to Washington, but his broken 
health compelled his resignation and retirement from the 
service. He was given his honorable discharge by order 
of the President. The State of Massachusetts afterward 
gave him a certificate for faithful and patriotic services 
during the war. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FIRST LOVE 

" One thought sits brooding in my bosom, 
As broodeth in her nest the dove ; 
A strange, delicious doubt o'ercomes me. 
But is it love ? 

11 I see her, hear her, daily, nightly ; 
My secret dreams around her move, 
Still nearer drawn in sweet attraction ; 
Can this be love ? 

V I breathe but peace when she is near me — 
A peace her absence takes away ; 
My heart commands her constant presence : 
Will hers obey ? ' ' 

If we could write but one chapter of the life of Russell 
H. Conwell, and desired in that one chapter to relate those 
circumstances which have had most to do in . making him 
what he is to-day, this would be the chapter. Here we 
enter the holy of holies, the sacredest chamber of the hu- 
man heart. One feels it is ground too holy to be trod by 
a biographer. Were it not that the life-story is incom- 
plete without it we should pass on our way without calling 
the reader's attention to this secluded passageway leading 
to the room where the crown jewels are kept. The jewels 
themselves we shall not see until after the fulfilment of 
the promise: "And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sor- 



yS Russell H. Conwell 

row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for 
the former things are passed away." The life of Russell 
H. Conwell cannot be accounted for apart from the influ- 
ence of his first wife. It is the siege of Troy without 
mention of Helen. 

As has previously been stated, Russell taught school at 
West Granville, Mass., during the spring terms of his 
freshman and sophomore years at Yale, 1861 and 1862. 
One of his pupils at West Granville was a beautiful girl 
by the name of Jennie P. Hayden, then seventeen years 
old (born in December, 1844), the daughter of a farmer. 
The school-teacher boarded with the Hayden family a part 
of the time, and was the intimate friend of Jennie's two 
older brothers, Sidney and William, and of her first cousin, 
Charles B. Hayden. He gave Jennie lessons in vocal 
music and on the melodeon. She had a beautiful soprano 
voice and frequently sang duets with her teacher. She 
was indeed a charming young woman, of a sweet, buoyant 
disposition, always cheerful, never had the blues, and was 
unusually bright. Her brother-in-law afterward said of 
her : " She was the most beautiful young woman I ever 
saw." Everybody liked Jennie; she was the pet of the 
neighborhood, and the especial favorite of her oldest 
brother, " Sid." She grew up on the farm, always worked 
hard, walked a mile and a half to school, and lived a life 
free as the mountain air, natural as a blushing rose, pure as 
an Easter lily. She was a lover of social life as she knew 
it in the town of West Granville, healthful and unsophisti- 
cated, innocent of the artificialities of the city. When, in 
the happy days of childhood, she would notice in the late 
afternoon that her brothers were hurrying through their 



The First Love 79 

work and evidently preparing to spend the evening away 
from home, she would persist in knowing where they were 
going ; and if it was to a party or sociable, she besought 
them to take her along. She could urge her case with 
such skill and sisterly affection as to win by unanimous 
vote. The fact of the matter was, she was such good com- 
pany, and the boys were so proud of her, that they were 
only too glad to have her go. 

Conwell was " as true a lover as ever sighed upon a mid- 
night pillow." She reciprocated his love with a true 
heart's affection, free from any pretended indifference, and 
with a genuineness which made it seem that heaven's smile 
was upon their prospects. 

In the fall of 1862 she entered Wilbraham Academy, 
and for two months Conwell's regiment was quartered at 
Camp Banks, only a short distance from Wilbraham. The 
academy girls frequently visited their brothers, cousins,, 
and sweethearts at the camp, and the popular captain of the 
Forty-sixth not unfrequently visited the academy. An 
affianced's pride in her lover who wore brass buttons, and 
who had been unanimously chosen to lead middle-aged men 
against his country's foes ; the anxious forebodings of bat- 
tlefields and prison pens ; the prayers which went up to 
God for his safety; the final good-by at the last private 
interview ; the commingling of pride and anxiety as the 
company disappeared over the hills toward Boston, from 
which they would sail for the South ; the swelling emotion 
which found vent in tears when she could be alone in her 
room; the months of anxious watching for news from the 
field of conflict ; the homecoming at the end of a nine- 
months' enlistment; the unsatisfactory reports of defeat 



8o 



Russell H. Conwell 



and arrest in North Carolina; the dreadful news from 
Kenesaw Mountain; a hopeful word from the hospital at 
Marietta — all these things belong to the unwritten history 

of one of the truest 
unions ever pledged 
at a marriage altar. 
When peace had 
been declared, and 
the persistent law 
student had gradu- 
ated on examination 
at the Albany Law 
School, the lovers 
lost no time in mak- 
ing a home for 
themselves in the 
new West. In the 
mean time, Jennie's 
family had moved 
to Chicopee Falls, 
near Springfield, 
and she had im- 
proved her time 
teaching school. 
The old residents 
of Chicopee Falls remember that she was an excellent 
teacher; that every scholar loved her; that she whipped 
a rough and disorderly boy as old as she was, and much 
larger ; and that she took a certificate from the local school 
board when she went to Minnesota. They were married 
a1 Chicopee Falls, March 8th, 1865. It was an overmas- 




MRS. JENNIE P. CONWELL 



The First Love 81 

tering passion of love in which spiritual tenderness reigned 
supreme. Not long after their marriage they journeyed to 
St. Paul, where they both joined the First Baptist church — 
she by letter and he on experience. In two weeks after 
joining the church and arranging for a permanent residence 
in St. Paul, they saw a better opening in Minneapolis, and 
moved there. They were very poor. For the first few 
weeks they lived in one room back of his law office, with 
the cheapest kind of comforts. Soon Conwell founded a 
daily paper, Tlie Star of the North, and the bright young 
wife edited the Woman's Column. The tide of fortune 
turned, and they built a fine home in the suburbs of the 
growing young city. 

After the death of her husband, in 1866, Mrs. Hayden 
made her home with the Conwells. One bitter cold even- 
ing Russell came home to supper with some tickets, and 
asked Jennie and her mother to go to see an actor of na- 
tional reputation who happened to be in Minneapolis that 
night. He was persistent in his request, and, cold as it 
was, they consented to go to the theater, while he went to 
the Grand Army meeting. That night their beautiful 
home was burned. While running to the fire, a mile and 
a half from the G. A. R. hall, Russell's wounds broke out 
afresh. His health gave way; he must leave everything 
and go abroad. The tide of their treacherous fortunes had 
turned again. In a few short months their possessions, 
amounting to $25,000, had been swept away, and Russell 
was a reporter on the Boston Traveller at $5 per week. 
Jennie and her mother took in sewing to get money to 
come East. Abject poverty met them in Boston. They 
were too sensitive to apply to relatives. They rented 



82 Russell H. Conwell 

rooms in a poor district in East Boston. Mrs. Hayden 
secured two beds, and Conwell a stove and a few chairs. 
They used a store-box for a table. Their first baby was 
born on a straw bed on the floor, they being too poor to 
afford the luxury of bedsteads, and the two beds had been 
sold to hire a nurse. The young mother lived on bread 
and milk. Oh, biting poverty ! Oh, the sad heart of the 
husband who could provide no more comforts for an hour 
when her footsteps led along the borderland of life ! Oh, 
the brave heart that could keep up its courage, and cheer 
her husband on during the darkest hours of a poverty like 
that ! Let prosaic scoffers laugh at men of sentiment, but 
it is true that a woman is superior to a man ; she performs 
a service akin to that of a ministering angel. This season 
of cruel poverty lasted but a few weeks. Ere long Russell 
received $35 per week from his newspaper work, and his 
family were comfortable. As soon as the brave young 
wife was able, she contributed to the family income by 
soliciting advertisements for papers. The family moved 
to Vernon Street, Somerville, and Russell began practising 
law, speculating in real estate, and lecturing, while contin- 
uing his newspaper work. The sky brightens. Russell's 
" Letters from the Battlefields " increase the circulation 
of the paper so greatly that the Boston Traveller and the 
New York Tribune join hands to send him around the 
world in 1869 and 1870. The young couple will some 
day occupy that high position of influence and power 
toward which they had both looked so hopefully. Jennie 
was always cheerful. She loved her husband with all her 
heart, and would stand by him through any experience, no 
matter what happened. Those who knew her intimately 



The First Love 83 

remember her as " an unusually bright woman," " naturally- 
smarter than Russell," "an excellent mother" ; "she had 
a very happy way of governing her children " ; " she looked 
upon the bright side of everything " ; " she shone in society 
like a queen" ; "she could adapt herself to all classes of 
people " ; " she was never discouraged " ; " there was never 
a child around her but loved her" ; " Conwell worshiped 
Jennie." She had dark brown hair and beautiful brown 
eyes, was five feet six inches tall, and weighed one hundred 
and forty pounds. It was a figure upon which the eye 
could rest in search of Gods perfected handiwork. She 
blended intellect, affection, and will into a symmetrical 
character. Her face was the reflection of all that is con- 
fiding and affectionate in womanhood — a woman a man 
could love with all his being, and who, by the power of 
purest affection, could, and did, hold a man to the noblest 
resolves. 

She was perfectly willing that her husband should tour 
the world. He would gain the information he needed. 
He would some day be a great lecturer. They would suc- 
ceed at whatever cost. They would some day occupy a 
prominent position, and they would gain it by hard work 
and sacrifice. She bade him good-by with a heavy heart 
and swelling tears, but with a firm resolve to endure any- 
thing for his sake. She did her own work, and cared for 
her own children. The family moved into a house on Park 
Street, Somerville, where Leon Conwell was born, while 
his father was in India. Jennie and her mother made coats 
for a Boston tailor. Russell returned home for a few days, 
and she helped him prepare for publication his book, " Why 
and How Chinese Emigrate." Her frequent articles in 



84 Russell H. Conwell 

the newspapers were extensively copied. She had literary 
ability. There were many long months of lonely watching 
and waiting in the humble home, while her husband was 
seeing the great cities, art galleries, and palaces, and meet- 
ing the crowned heads of the Old World. 

" Nobody knows of the work it makes 
To keep the house together ; 
Nobody knows of the steps it takes, 
Nobody knows — but mother. 

" Nobody listens to childish woes 
Which kisses only smother; 
Nobody's pained by naughty blows, 
Nobody — only mother. 

" Nobody knows of the sleepless care 
Bestowed on baby brother; 
Nobody knows of the tender prayer. 
Nobody — only mother. 

" Nobody knows of the anxious fears 
Lest darling may not weather 
The storms of life in after years, 
Nobody knows — but mother. 

" Nobody kneels at the throne above 
To thank the Heavenly Father, 
For the sweetest gift — a mother's love; 
Nobody can — but mother." 

His companions were Bayard Taylor, Henry M. Stanley, 
and Joseph Garibaldi. She did the washing and made 
the children's clothes. He met the great of earth amid 
scenes of splendor and halls of pride, and she wanted him 
to have every possible advantage travel affords. Russell 
should realize the dream of his youth. He should be a 



The First Love 85 

great man. He should be that because his wife " helped 
him every blessed way she could. " She read an extract 
from the London Times : " Col. Russell H. Conwell, who 
has been making a journey entirely around the world, 
sailed for home last week. Colonel Conwell is one of the 
most noteworthy men of New England. He has already 
been in all parts of the world. He is a writer of singular 
brilliancy and power, and as a popular lecturer his success 
has been astonishing. He has made a place beside such 
orators as Beecher, Phillips, and Chapin. " The day to- 
ward which she had looked so hopefully, for which she had 
prayed so earnestly, for which she had struggled so hero- 
ically, was dawning. The black clouds of night were dis- 
persing ; the king of day was lighting up the eastern sky 
with all his splendor. 

Russell returned home a man with a reputation. He 
had lectured in California, Utah, India, and England with 
unparalleled success. How happy was that humble family 
at No. 10 Park Street! Husband and father would be 
home for several months, and then Jennie would accom- 
pany him on an extended trip abroad ; the long days of 
separation were over. How had she ever endured them ! 
They were too lonely to think about. With the exception 
of short lecture trips, they should not be separated again 
until death should part them. 

The Christmas of 1872 came with its joys and happy 
remembrances. They were all together,. Sincere thanks 
were returned to the great Father of Mercies for having 
spared their lives and brought them through periods of 
darkness to that bright hour of prosperity, fame, and hap- 
piness. The children could now begin to enter into the 



86 Russell H. Con well 

spirit of Christmas festivity. The poor of the neighbor- 
hood were not forgotten. Mrs. Conwell's gift of money 
to a poor ragged Italian boy suggested a theme for her 
next article in the Somerville Journal, and as it was the 
last she ever wrote we copy an extract : 

"WOMAN'S WORK. 

"That fifty-cent piece which I put in the box ' went for the 
heathen/ they said; but I have been just so miserably wicked 
as to wish a dozen times that I had it back. What would I 
do with it? Just what I did with the one I had left — give it 
myself to a heathenish, dirty-faced, brutish little urchin I saw 
crawling out from under a hog-pen, for then I was sure the 
heathen had it; and it did not cost $12.50 to get that fifty-cent 
scrip to the persons for whom it was given. To be sure, I 
have wondered what the astonished little fellow did with the 
demi-greenback, yet it does not matter but little. He was 
pleased, as I know by his bewildered look, and I think that he 
was not a little puzzled to know who ' Mary Christmas ' was 
that sent him so much money. He did not thank me, and I 
did not wish that he would. It may be that he didn't know 
enough, or was not sure whether he was to thank me or the 
mythical Mary I told him about. At all events I think he 
studied over it, and it may be that he asked some one about 
Christmas, and was told of Christ, and the angels, and the 
heaven of which, in educated minds, it is a reminder. The 
fifty-cent scrip was a sermon more eloquent, more pungent, 
more thrilling than Beecher or Spurgeon or Hyacinthe. 

" Still, I should rather like to know if I am right. It is left 
with God, however, and you and I will know all about it when 
we get to be like him. I have faith enough in it to give away 
numberless such scrips if I had them, before Merry Christmas 
becomes too dim with age. 

" Talk about the heathen of Africa, China, and Afghanistan ! 
What is a heathen anywhere, if it is not a human being with 
a heart, a head, and a nerve-covered body which he has neg- 
lected? We are all half-heathens, and some of us are more 
than that. In just such proportion as we are uneducated, un- 



The First Love 87 

refined, uncharitable, untidy, and unsociable, we are heathen- 
ish. If a person has no education, no refinement, no neatness, 
and no charity, he is every whit a heathen. Now, have we not 
a few in our land of Somerville? Are there not a great many 
parents, and what is more, a large number of children, here, 
who have no tenderness, no cultivation, and who in spite of 
themselves must be heathen ? How many I saw in one short 
ramble whose homes are too shabby and poverty-stricken to 
admit of refinement, and whose dress was necessarily too un- 
couth to admit of dignity or good taste in behavior! Christ- 
mas is a great purifier, if mamma has money enough to fill the 
stockings with picture-books, toys, and delicacies; and the 
child who has no friend who is able or disposed to make him 
a present, is taught by its very absence that he is of no conse- 
quence, and that his soul is not worth saving. He forgets him- 
self because no one remembers him. And when a boy, girl, 
man, or woman has forgotten himself or herself, they are dead 
to love, hope, refinement, and the purer joys. Somerville has 
more of these self-forgotten ones than you think, unless you 
have been in the shanties, quadruple tenements, and hovels 
where they reside. I have seen softly gloved fingers daintily 
depositing a contribution in church for the degraded in Hin- 
dostan, while cursing and vulgar little imps were hideously 
screaming in a neighboring yard. I would not have them take 
it back if they had plenty more to give, but I would have them 
xlo both, and forget neither the heathen at home nor abroad. 
Woman cannot afford to forget the gamins of Somerville. An 
act of charity elevates and purifies the heart of her who gives, 
and there is ever so great a chance in some of our suburbs for 
you to achieve purity. They may be rough and unpleasant 
places to visit; and the diamond might say the same of the 
stone on which it is polished. Take a day and a companion 
and go down to ' Brick Bottom/ to the' Patch,' and the ' Rus- 
sian Territory/ and you will return with an increased love for 
your home, your family, and your God." 

On the 7th of January Mrs. Conwell did not feel well. 
She could with difficulty go upstairs. No one thought it 
was anything serious, and she laughed about it herself, so 



88 Russell H. Conwell 

cheerful, so happy, so hopeful for the years to come. 
Xext morning the doctor was sent for and pronounced it 
rheumatic fever, Xo fatal results, however, were antici- 
pated. On the morning of January i ith the doctor called 
and inquired of Mrs. Hayden : " How is your daughter this 
morning?" " She is much better this morning, thank 
you." The doctor visited his patient and said to Mrs. 
Hayden, in a sadly subdued tone : " Yes, she will be bet- 
ter soon; the trouble has gone to her heart, and she will 
die before to-morrow." At 1 1 :$o that night the cold 
messenger laid his hand on the beautiful bride of Col. 
Russell H. Conwell, and the light of his life went out. 
Oh, crushing sorrow ! it was too hard to bear. How could 
he ever go on without her ! The news came to the rela- 
tives of both families with stunning effect, causing the 
keenest, deepest grief. Professor Xiles, of Cambridge, 
Mr. Conwell's cousin, went to the home at Somerville to 
express his sympathy. The stricken husband arose to wel- 
come him. With tears streaming down his cheeks and a 
voice choking with uncontrollable sobs, he said : " Oh a 
Harmon, I don't think I shall ever rise from this; I sup- 
pose I may, but it seems to me I never can." Mr. Con- 
well simply reflected his own feelings when he afterward 
wrote in his biography of President Garfield an account of 
the death of the father of Garfield : " Have you ever been 
poor and imprisoned in a great city with the body of a 
child or wife or husband or mother or father lying in death 
in your front room ? Have you ever in your grief glanced 
at the passing crowds, and longed for one look of sympa- 
thy ? Have you ever wished that the next neighbor would 
stop the piano, or his loud, careless laugh, or quiet his 



The First Love 89 

noisy children that play about the door? Did not the per- 
sistent call of traders, marketmen, and beggars harrow up 
your stricken soul and cover your cheeks with the hot tears 
of unutterable woe ? Like the 'Ancient Mariner's ' surfeit 
of water with none to drink, you sat wretched and alone, 
friendless and unnoticed in your sorrow, while around you 
an ocean of humanity surged and rolled, wasting its super- 
abundance of sympathy on poodle pets and hardened crimi- 
nals ; and caring not if the dirty gamins in the gutters pelted 
your meager funeral procession with sticks and stones. " 

Conwell retired from public life for a time. The lover 
of public speech could not bear to appear in public now. 
He must be allowed to mourn his loss in private. Ever 
since that dark nth of January, 1872, he has had a 
shrinking from public notice. The rapturous applause of 
appreciative audiences was poor consolation to him with 
his lovely wife in the cold grave. Then and there he re- 
solved to give his lecture fees to the education of poor stu- 
dents. It turned the whole course of his life, and directed 
him to the ministry. He began active Christian work at 
once; and although he did not leave the law entirely until 
seven years later, he was engaged in Christian work even- 
ings and Sundays, and the law was ever afterward distaste- 
ful. The change in profession came at the time he ac- 
cepted the pastorate of the Lexington church ; but the 
change in purpose and desire came at the death of his wife. 

One of the Boston morning papers of January 12th, 1872, 
said: "Mrs. Conwell was a true and loving wife and 
mother, kind and sympathetic in her intercourse with all, 
and possessed of those rare womanly graces and qualities 
which endeared her to those with whom she was acquainted. 



90 Russell H. Conwell 

Her death leaves a void which cannot be filled even out- 
side her own household. Her writings were those of a 
true woman, always healthful in their tone, strong and 
vigorous in ideas, and concise in language." Whether or 
not Conwell looked on his troubles as the shadows of com- 
ing mercies, we do not know. Perhaps they were not for 
him, but they were for thousands of others. This experi- 
ence brought a willingness to listen to the " still, small 
voice," whose gentle whispers had been drowned in the 
noise and applause of ambition's gratification. Sorrow is 
sometimes God's last message to man. With Conwell it 
was powerful, convincing, effectual. Several weeks after 
his wife's death, Mr. Conwell was called into a jeweler's 
store and asked : " Why don't your wife come after the 
watch?" "My wife is dead." "Well, she ordered a 
watch made to order here ; it was a very fine one and cost 
$200. She said it was for a present to you." The sor- 
rowing husband was puzzled to know why his wife should 
invest $200 in a watch, as their income would not warrant 
such an expenditure. Two weeks later, while they were 
removing some of her clothing from a trunk, an envelope 
was found upon which was written: " This money is for 
the watch." Inside the envelope was a bank-book. Upon 
taking the book to the bank they found $200 credited to 
Mrs. R. H. Conwell. She had worked long hours making 
little coats for a Boston tailor, and saved S200 that she 
might present to her husband a further token of her love. 
Mr. Conwell carries the watch to-day (1899). On the 
inside of the back case Jennie had had engraved two hands 
in affectionate clasp, and this inscription : " Great love, 
great sacrifice." 



The First Love 91 

Jennie P. Conwell did a great and good work during the 
twenty-seven years of her life. Being dead she yet speak - 
eth. Her influence was that of a Venus Urania. It was 
a powerful spiritual affinity, such as could not be broken 
by death. Her presence is with her husband every day of 
his life; indescribable, incomprehensible, nevertheless a 
mighty power urging him on. Many have asked how it 
is possible for him to perform such an enormous amount 
of arduous labor — work that would kill three ordinary men. 
The inspiration derived from the conscious presence of 
that sainted loved one has much to do with his success. 

The author recently stood by her grave at Chicopee, 
Mass. A plain marble slab with a brief inscription marks 
the spot where the precious dust was laid to rest. He 
stood for a moment lost in wonder. There arose before 
his mind's eye two enormous stone buildings at Broad and 
Berks streets, Philadelphia. He thought of the great 
enterprises, religious, educational, and benevolent, which 
Conwell's heart and brain have made possible. He looked 
at the humble grave : the contrast was too great. The 
weeds had taken possession of the mound, and not a flower 
was in sight. He looked again. Two little daisies had 
grown on one stalk, and seemed two parts of one flower. 
They were alone. As he meditated on the strange mys- 
tery of life, the little daisies seemed to preach him a ser- 
mon. It was from the text : " For our light affliction 
which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at 
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not 
seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the 
things which are not seen are eternal. " 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TRAVELER 

" In many lands I have wandered and wondered and listened and seen, 
And many my friends and companions and teachers and lovers have been; 
And nowhere a corner was there but I garnered up pleasure and gain, 
From a hundred'gardens, rose-blooms — from a thousand granaries, grain." 

When a boy of thirteen years, Russell Conwell ran away 
from home, and went to Europe on a summer excursion, 
his uncle assisting him by a loan of necessary money. 
He was absent from home but a few weeks, and his cool 
father did not mention the subject on his return. 

When his health failed in 1867, while a lawyer in Min- 
neapolis, Governor Marshall appointed him Immigration 
Commissioner for the State of Minnesota ; but upon ar- 
riving in Europe his health would not permit him to dis- 
charge the duties pertaining to the office. For a time he 
attended lectures at the University of Leipsic. Hoping 
for good results from an entire change of climate, he ac- 
companied a surveying party to Palestine ; but the sunny 
land of sacred story did not give him the greatest boon of 
life, health. With failing strength and more frequent 
hemorrhage, he made his way back to the Necker Hospi- 
tal in Paris. The skilful physicians were unable to tell 
what was the matter with him. He grew weaker every 
day. An analysis of the hemorrhage revealed the pres- 
ence of copper. " Have you taken copper into your sys- 



The Traveler 93 

tern in anyway?" they inquired. "No." The doctors 
told him they could do nothing for him, that he would die 
in a few days. One day a doctor came to the Necker 
Hospital from Berlin, and was taken to the bedside of the 
dying American. • He detected the presence of copper, and 
asked the patient if he had been in the war. "Yes." 
"Were you shot?" "Yes, I was shot . in the shoulder 
at one time, but that wound has never given me any 
trouble." "What kind of bullets did the enemy use?" 
"Brass, at one time." "That is your trouble;* the bullet 
has worked down into your lung, and an operation is the 
only thing that can save your life. The chances are 
against you ; but if you could get back to New York, you 
would find in the Bellevue Hospital the most skilful sur- 
geon in the world." Mr. Conwell availed himself of the 
next steamer for New York, and came across in compara- 
tive comfort. The operation was successful, the bullet 
removed. When returning health permitted him to re- 
sume his accustomed activity, he found himself confronted 
by abject poverty. His business in Minneapolis had been 
sold out at a ruinous sacrifice, and it was useless to return. 
It was at this time that he went to Boston and secured a 
position as reporter for the Boston Traveller at five dollars 
a week, as mentioned already. For weeks he lived on 
one meal of bread a day, and chased the news items 
through Boston. His wife and mother-in-law took in 
sewing, and came to Boston to share his poverty. 

" The kind of a man for you and me ! 
He faces the world unflinchingly, 
And smites as long as the wrong exists, 
With a knuckled faith and forcelike fists: 



94 Russell H. Conwell 

He lives the life he is preaching of, 

And loves where most is the need of love; 

His voice is clear to the deaf man's ears, 

And his face sublime through the blind man's tears; 

The light shines out where the clouds were dim, 

And the widow's prayers go up for him." 



In the summer of '69 his paper sent him to write up 
the battlefields of the South. This trip to the battlefields 
was full of exciting interest and dangerous ventures. ' Be- 
sides the narrow escape from death in New Orleans at the 
hands of gamblers whose den he invaded for news, he 
came very near being killed on a Mississippi steamboat. 
A drunken man sat on the deck, and ordered the porter to 
bring him whisky. The porter replied that they had none 
on board. Whereupon Mr. Bragadocia demanded whis- 
ky, and threatened to kill the negro if he failed to bring 
it. When the black face and white apron next appeared, 
Bragadocia proceeded to carry his threat into execution by 
using a window-sash over the porter's head. Conwell in- 
terfered in the porter's behalf, and was treated to a peep 
down the muzzle of a cocked revolver in the hands of an 
enraged demon full of bad whisky. Mr. Conwell knocked 
the villain down before he could pull the trigger, thus sav- 
ing his own life. We shall see this same porter again. 
In one of these letters from the battlefields, which he 
would never consent to have printed in book form, are 
these graphic words : " Go ! ye disbelievers who laugh at 
ghost stories and fairy tales, go sit beside that sweet wa- 
terfall on the cliffy side of Lookout Mountain, and tell 
us if you doubt their existence then. . . . He that can sit 
here alone, surrounded by the jagged rocks and monumen- 



The Traveler 95 

tal mountains, and see no German fairies, English ghosts, 
Arabian peris, or Norwegian demons, has surely no taste 
for natural beauty, nor a fit appreciation of the awe-inspir- 
ing works of the Almighty. Deny it ye who may, the 
mountains do have souls, and their children, the fairies, 
do have influence upon the destinies of men. Else why 
is it that the men of the mountain are always hardier, hap- 
pier, and greater lovers of freedom than they of the plains 
and valleys ? Why are the people of the hills more gen- 
erous, loftier-minded, and braver than their brethren of 
the prairie ? If the fairies do not assist their human prod- 
igies, how came Switzerland free ? Far, far along the 
highway of history, who were the conquerors ? Who were 
the patrons of civilization? Who were the martyrs? 
Men of the mountains. Who march into the city with less 
education, less capital than their competitors, and soon 
lead the march toward the land of plenty and wealth? 
Who came down from the North and West, and on the 
craggy side of this same mountain gained a Switzerlandish 
victory? The men of the fairy-filled mountains. Men of 
the city die off, and men of the hills, floating down on the 
foaming cataracts, fill their places. On the ocean, in the 
warehouses, on the rostrum, in the halls of legislation, in 
the army, or on the throne, the men of the mountains are 
found, rugged as their native hills, as high-minded as their 
mountains are high, and as generous as their valleys are 
deep. Don't say, then, that there is no spirit of the hills, 
or that there are no fairies. Wherever the mountains are 
grand and the chasms deep, wherever the waterfalls tinkle 
or the torrent bellows, there dwell the little beings that 
influence men's characters. Do you say it is only the 



9 6 



Russell H. Conwell 



mountains ? How can cold dirt make men better or wiser ? 
But if fairy or hobgoblin, dirt or rock, have no real soul, 
men do become braver and nobler for dwelling in the 
mountains. Hence New England's position in the nation. 
Hence the reason why her ideas and actions are noted and 

imitated everywhere 
within the borders of 
this nation." 

His vivid imagina- 
tion and close ob- 
servation made 
Conwell's letters 
from the battlefield 
brilliant descriptions 
of fascinating inter- 
est. A glow of en- 
thusiasm, a deep vein 
of sentiment, and 
accurate historical 
information enabled 
him to picture the 
battlefield so vividly 
that many soldiers 
exclaimed as they 
read his letters : " That is where I stood ! " "I can see it 
all again!" Rendering the present transparent, and an- 
nihilating time and space, he threw a panoramic view of 
Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, and Gettysburg before the 
excited imagination of his admiring readers which received 
the homage that genius compels. 

In the fall of 1869, Mr. Conwell started on his third 




CHARLES H. COXWELL 



The Traveler 



97 



visit to foreign lands. This journey took him to France, 
Italy, Northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Babylon, Nine- 
veh, Turkey, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Scotland. 
It was on this visit, when traveling down the Tigris River, 
after visiting the mounds and ruins of ancient Babylon, 
that an old Arabian guide related to him the tradition 
upon which his famous lecture, " Acres of Diamonds, " is 
based. It is a fascinating story, and we give it in Mr. 
Conwell's own words : " Many hundreds of years ago there 
lived near the shore of the River Indus an ancient Persian 
by the name of Ali HafecL He dwelt in a beautiful cot- 
tage, from which he could look down from the mountain- 
side upon a magnificent river, and even away to the great 
sea. He had a lovely wife and intelligent children. He 
had an extensive farm, with fields of grain, orchards of fruit, 
gardens of flowers, and miles of forests. He owed no one, 
and had money at interest. He was a wealthy and con- 
tented man ; wealthy because he was contented, and con- 
tented because he was wealthy. One day this old Persian 
was visited by one of the wise priests of Buddha. He was 
sincerely welcomed, and given the best which the house 
and farm produced. One evening the old priest sat by Ali 
Hafed's fireside, and told the farmer how this world was 
made. He said that this great solid globe was once a mere 
bank of fog, and that the Great Overruling Spirit thrust 
his finger into the bank of fog. Then he began slowly 
to turn his finger about in a circle within the fog, and 
gradually increased the speed of his finger until in its 
swiftness it whirled that bank of fog into a solid ball of 
fire. Then he sent it shooting through the universe, burn- 
ing its way through other cosmic banks of fog, condensing 



98 Russell H. Conwell 

them into floods of rain, which cooled the outward crust 
of this great ball of fire. Then its internal flames burst 
the cooling crust, and threw up the hills and mountain 
ranges, and made the beautiful valleys. But, when the 
internal fires burst out, if in a flood of rain the melted 
substance cooled very quickly, it became granite ; that 
which cooled more slowly became copper; that which 
cooled still less quickly formed silver, and the last to con- 
geal became gold. Then the first gleams of sunlight con- 
densed on the world's surface into diamonds. Diamonds 
were but congealed or condensed beams of sunshine. The 
old priest told Ali Hafed that a drop of sunlight the size 
of his thumb was worth more than large mines of copper, 
silver, or gold, and with one he could buy many farms like 
his ; that with a handful he could buy a province, and with 
a mine of diamonds he could purchase a whole kingdom. 

" Ali Hafed went to his bed that night a poor man. He 
had not lost anything. But he was poor because he was 
discontented, and discontented because he thought he 
was poor. Poverty is only discontent. Early the next 
morning the Persian awoke the priest, and anxiously in- 
quired where he could find a mine of diamonds. 

" f What do you want of diamonds ? ' inquired the aston- 
ished priest. 

" ' I wish to be rich and place my children on thrones 
through the influence of their wealth. ' 

' All you have to do, ' replied the priest of Buddha, ' is to 
go and search until you find them.' 

" ' But where shall I go ? ' asked the eager farmer. 
' Go anywhere — north, south, east, or west — any- 
where. ' 



The Traveler 99 

" ' How shall I know when I have found the place ? ' 

" ' When you find a river running over white sands be- 
tween high mountain ranges, in those white sands you will 
find diamonds,' answered the priest. 

" ' But is there any such river? ' asked Ali Hafed the 
Persian. 

" ' Oh, yes, plenty of them. Many mines of diamonds are 
yet undiscovered. All you have to do is to start out, and 
go somewhere. Away ! Away ! ' 

" ' I'll go/ said the farmer, and turned hastily to make 
his preparations. He sold his farm at a forced price, col- 
lected his money which he had at interest; he left his fine 
family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search 
of diamonds. He began his real search ac the Mountains 
of the Moon, away beyond Arabia. He came down into 
Egypt. He wandered around through Palestine. Years 
went by. At last, his money all gone, himself in starva- 
tion and rags, he stood on the great bay on the coast of 
Spain — no diamonds, no friends, no property, no hope. 
On that sad day an immense tidal wave swept up the 
shore. Poor Ali Hafed could not resist the awful tempta- 
tion to throw himself into the incoming tide. So he sank 
beneath that foaming crest, never to rise in this life again. 

" Ali Hafed's successor on the old Indian farm was an 
observant man, and contented. He had no ambition to 
wander away for diamonds. One day he led his camel into 
the garden to drink. As the animal put his nose into the 
clear water of the brook Ali Hafed's successor noticed a 
flash of light from the white sands of the shallow stream. 
A gleam came from a very black stone. He reached down, 
picked up the stone. A clear eye of crystal strangely va- 



ioo Russell H. Conwell 

rying in its brilliant hues shone in one side of the pebble. 
The old farmer took it to the house, and left it on a shelf 
near the earthen hearth where in cool weather they made 
the fire. Then he went to his rice-fields, and forgot all 
about it. 

" A few days later the same old priest who had in- 
structed Ali Hafed how the world was made, and where 
diamonds were to be found, called to visit the new owner 
of the farm. The moment he entered the room he no- 
ticed that flash of light from the mantel or shelf. He 
rushed to it in great excitement. He shouted : 

" ' Here is a diamond ! Here is a diamond ! Has Ali 
Hafed returned ? ' 

" ' Oh, no ; Ali Hafed has not returned, ' said the host, 
( and that is not a diamond either. That is nothing but 
a stone I found out in my garden/ 

ik ' I tell you, said the priest, ' I know a diamond when 
I see it : I tell you that is a genuine diamond.' Together 
they rushed out into the garden. They stirred up the 
white sands with their fingers, and lo ! other gems more 
valuable, more beautiful than the first came to the surface. 
Thus, said the guide, was discovered the ancient mines of 
Golconda. 

" The story was finished. But the guide had the moral 
yet to add: ' Had Ali Hafed remained home, had he dug 
in his own garden or in his own fields, instead of poverty, 
starvation, death in a strange land, he would have had 
acres of diamonds. For every shovelful of that old farm, 
as acre after acre was sifted over, revealed gems with 
which to decorate the crowns of emperors and moguls.' ' 

Mr. Conwell had occasion more or less frequently to 



The Traveler 101 

interview Emperor William L, Bismarck, Victor Emanuel, 
the Prince of Wales, and has twice attended and described 
receptions given by Queen Victoria He had frequent con- 
versations with Napoleon III. and Eugenic, and walked 
through the banquet hall at Paris where Xapoleon III. 
received Alexander of Russia. For a period of three 
months he was the traveling companion of Bayard Taylor, 
visiting many places of historic interest, which those ob- 
serving travelers understood, where the unread tourist saw 
nothing but dust. He frequently met Henry M. Stanley, 
then correspondent for London papers, who wrote from 
Paris of Mr. Conwell : " Send that double-sighted Yankee, 
and he will see at a glance all there is and all there ever 
was." Mr. Samuel T. Harris, of New York, correspond- 
ent of the New York Times in 1870, in a private letter 
gave his estimate of Conwell thus : " Conwell is the fun- 
niest chap I ever fell in with. He sees a thousand things 
I never think of looking after. When his letters come back 
in print I find lots in them that seems new to me, although 
I saw it all the time. But you don't see the fun in his 
letters to the papers. The way he adapts himself to all 
circumstances comes from long travel ; but it is droll. 
He makes a salaam to the defunct kings, a neat bow to the 
Sudras, and a friendly wink at the howadji in a way that 
puts him cheek-by-jowl with them in a jiffy. He beats 
me all out in his positive sympathy with these miserable 
heathen. He has read so much that he knows about every- 
thing. The way the officials, English too, treat him 
would make you think he was the son of a lord. He has 
a dignified condescension in his manner that I can't imi- 
tate/' 



102 Russell H. Conwell 

This tireless student carried books with him all the 
time, and informed himself on the history of every spot 
he visited. A delay at a railway station, or a long ride in 
a rude conveyance, furnished an opportunity to store his 
mind with useful information. There is a world of differ- 
ence between a man who thinks and one who reflects on 
nothing. He saw clearly and understandingly. His vast 
store of information, lending interest to every scene, and 
the intention of writing about it, stimulated him in grasp- 
ing firmly and printing indelibly upon his memory. Gath- 
ering facts for publication and recording his impressions 
for the good of others gave much valuable information for 
lectures. Thinking intently and writing graphically, as 
he looked upon strange and varied scenes, helped him to a 
style rich in figurative beauty. 

From Jerusalem he wrote : " Last night we sat in the 
moonlight under the old olives in Gethsemane. The old 
monk was very kind, and could speak German readily. 
He was full of traditions and speculations; but when the 
shadows of the walls began to creep up the side of Olivet 
I lost myself in delicious reveries. The monk talked on, 
the olive trees shook in the breeze, and the cry of some 
sentry or shepherd often echoed around the walls ; but all 
grew indistinct and unreal. All changed about me, with 
transformations like a clear dream. I stood alone in old 
Gethsemane. No wall of masonry about it, no picket en- 
closures within. The olives were larger, the hedge deeper, 
the Kedron rippled on. Palestine had been hot and dis- 
agreeable, but the beds of earth and stone, poor food, the 
beggars, the lepers, the guides, the quarreling Arabs, the 
weeping Jews of the present, with all their disagreeable 



The Traveler 103 

associations of the present, were gone. I stepped back 
eighteen hundred years and more. It was dark. Lights 
flashed from the dark outlines of the walls. Suddenly the 
moon looked down through a rift of deep clouds. Then it 
was dark again. The distant mountains beyond the city, 
and Olivet behind me, were strangely outlined against the 
murky sky. I could hear the voices of pilgrim parties 
murmuring in their little camps, and the distant chatter of 
passing travelers going up the steep ascent to the city. 
... I saw the shadowy form of men crossing the bridge, 
and saw them indistinctly as they paused at the gateway 
of the garden. I saw the four come into the garden, and 
heard their voices. Distinctly one said as he left the oth- 
ers, under the largest olive : ' Tarry ye here while I go and 
pray yonder.' He paused near me. His white robe 
brushed the vines along the path. Under the next olive 
he knelt down. The moon came out again, and sprinkled 
his robe with light through the leaves. His head was un- 
covered. His hands were stretched upward. How plead- 
ing his tones: ' Let this cup pass from me.' What a 
view of him I had ! I cried. Tears came down. I held 
my breath as the noble man walked back and woke the 
sleepers. Then again he glided by. Again he prayed. 
Once more the moon showed him clearly kneeling. Oh, 
what a sight ! He was moaning, and had fallen prostrate 
on the ground. Suddenly a soft glow, as of crimson dawn, 
grew brighter about the place. It grew speedily into light 
which encircled the praying one ; then, softly outlined at 
first, but quickly defined, a bright form appeared bending 
over the weeping worshiper. An angel ! Oh, such di- 
vinity of beauty ! such delicacy of manner ! such grace 



i 04 Russell H. Conwell 

of motion ! such compassionate love ! I knelt before the 
vision. I put my head to the ground. My soul was filled 
with an ineffable thrill of joy. That was worship indeed. 

" ' Kommen sie mit mir, mein Herr? ' t You must be 
dreaming and very tired,' kindly commanded the monk, 
and the delicious vision was dissipated. Such scenes long 
gone, and not the present landscapes, make the chief joy 
and profit of travel. " 

Mr. Conwell returned home in 1870 and found in Som- 
erville, Mass., at No. 10 Park Street, a picture more 
beautiful and one that awakened deeper emotions than any 
masterpiece of art upon which he had feasted his soul amid 
scenes of splendor or halls of pride in the old world — a lit- 
tle baby son in his mother's arms. . Leon was two months 
old, and crowed his globe-trotting papa a welcome more 
gracious than he had received from the jeweled- fingered 
Empress Eugenie. Only a brief respite of one week was 
permitted ere he must start on his famous journey around 
the world. It included a lecture trip in the Western Ter- 
ritories and California, thence to the Sandwich Islands, 
through Japan, into the interior of China and to Pekin, 
visiting Sumatra, Siam, Burmah, Madras, journeying to 
the Himalaya Mountains, through India, piercing Arabia 
to Mecca, going to the Upper Nile, and home by the way 
of Greece, Italy, and England. During this trip of 1 870-1 
he gathered the material for his book, " Why and How 
Chinese Emigrate." 

A broken-hearted mother in Charlestown, Mass., re- 
quested Mr. Conwell to find her wandering boy whom she 
believed to be somewhere in China. In pursuit of the 
wandering son Mr. Conwell went into a back room on 



The Traveler IO S 

the upper floor of a hotel in Hong-Kong, China, and found 
a young American playing cards with an old man. The 
brilliant correspondent shall tell his own story: 

"They had been betting and drinking. While the gray- 
haired man was shuffling the cards for a ' new deal ' the young 
man, in a swaggering, careless way, sang, to a very pathetic 
tune, a verse of Phoebe Cary's beautiful hymn, 4 One Sweetly 
Solemn Thought.' Hearing the singing, several gamblers 
looked up in surprise. The old man who was dealing the 
cards put on a look of melancholy, stopped for a moment, 
gazed steadfastly at his partner in the game, and 'dashed the 
pack upon the floor under the table. Then said he, 4 Where 
did you learn that tune? ' The young man pretended that he 
did not know he had been singing. ' Well, no matter,' said 
the old man, c I've played my last game, and that's the end of 
it. The cards may lie there till doomsday, and I will never 
pick them up.' The old man having won money from the 
young man— about one hundred dollars — took it out of his 
pocket, and handing it to the latter, said: ' Here, Harry, is 
your money; take it and do good with it; I shall with mine.' " 

The reader will be interested to know that the elderly 
man's name was W. S. Hodgkins, of Westfield, Mass. , and 
that he spent the last seven years of his life as a Christian 
missionary among the sailors on the Pacific coast. He 
died in 1888 in Salem, Oreg. , esteeming it the goal of life 
to go— 

" Nearer the Father's house 
Where many mansions be; 
Nearer the great white throne, 
Nearer the jasper sea." 

Mr. Conwell was an intimate friend of Joseph Garibaldi, 
frequently visited the Italian warrior in his island home, 
and kept up an extended correspondence with the general 



106 Russell H. ConweU 

until the latter's death. It was Garibaldi who called Mr. 
Conwell 's attention to the Venetian statesman, Daniel 
Manin, upon whose heroic deed his lecture, " The Heroism 
of a Private Life," is founded. 

Upon his arrival home in 1871 he found the editorial 
chair of the Boston Traveller awaiting him, which position 
he filled for nearly a year, or until his visit to England 
and Russia in the summer of 1 872. Returning home from 
this his fifth journey to Europe, in the French steamer 
lona, the hero of many battles showed his fortitude by 
walking the deck and singing, " Nearer, my God, to thee," 
when the water-soaked vessel, after drifting aimlessly 
about twenty-six days, was thought to be sinking during 
a dreadful storm. The hymn quieted the hysterical women 
and reassured the alarmed captain. On this same vessel 
he was taken ill, and was nursed through to health by the 
porter whose life he had saved on a Mississippi steamer 
in 1869. 

In 1878 Mr. Conwell personally conducted a party over 
Europe, with what degree of success we may judge from 
the personal testimony of a member of his party, who 
said : " His way of leading the tourists up to a locality, 
and his graphic introduction, made the journey a panorama 
of exciting views." 

The years from 1878 to 1894 were so overcrowded with 
work that "the picturesque orator" could not leave Amer- 
ica long enough at any one time for rambles in Europe; 
but in 1894 his health compelled him to slacken the fear- 
ful dash for the grave, and endeavor to prolong his race a 
little further. Accompanied by Mrs. Conwell, his daugh- 
ter Agnes, and Miss Oellers, of Philadelphia, the worn-out 



The Traveler 107 

pastor again crossed the briny deep, and spent the summer 
in England, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Aus- 
tria, and Switzerland. 

Even in far-away Vienna the pastor did not forget the 

babies : 

"Vienna, August 16th, 1894. 

" To the Youngest Member of the Kendrick Family. 

" Dear Friend : You may think it is rather late for me to 
welcome you into our old world, and perhaps you know by ex- 
perience by this time that there is no nonsense about this queer 
old planet. Still we are glad you have got aboard this craft, 
and hope you will furnish us with lots of music before you get 
off. When I jumped on to this ball, I had an idea that all 
there was to do on the globe was to kick up my toes and coo 
as long as I had enough to eat and the pins kept out of me; 
and, further, to yell like a hyena if pop didn't jump me or 
victuals were scarce. But I have found out, as you will, my 
young brother, that sometimes it is best to yell when we have 
enough to eat, and coo when we are hungry. 

" Remarkable world this is ! I am glad you leaped on when 
hoop-skirts and stock-collars had gone by, and I shouldn't 
wonder if you lived to see the mutton sleeves go after them. 
But I may get off at one of the stations somewhere along, and 
I hope you will preach better than I have. 

" Your brother, 

" Conwell." 

From London Mr. Conwell wrote of a visit to " Dark- 
est England " : 

" We looked into saloons crowded with drunken masses of 
humanity, into tenements on the ground floor, with one room, 
abounding in rags, filth, broken china, and dirty children. 
They seemed to know no sleeping. Then we passed down 
narrow, dark streets, with drunken men lying in the doonvays, 
and saw one poor, half-naked boy hugging close to a snoring 
drunkard on the sidewalk. He was surely trying also to go to 
sleep. I lifted the boy's hand with my foot as it lay out on 



108 Russell H. Conwell 

the pavement, and seeing he was awake, I asked him if the 
sleeping man was his father. ' Oh! no, sir/ politely answered 
the ragged gamin, ' I don't know whose father he is: but, sir, 
he's warm/ So the wretched little Hottentot in great London 
was getting warm by lying next to a besotted drunkard, be- 
cause it was the only warm place he could find. Poor fellow! 
I wish we could take many such and put them at school and 
make Gladstones of them, as certainly could be done. . . . 
On my return to the Grand Opera House, the performance was 
just over, and I stood by the great vestibule among the liver- 
ied footmen and saw the lords and ladies descend from the 
great hall by the carpeted stairway. Oh, it was a gorgeous 
scene indeed! Hundreds of magnificently attired ladies, in 
all the extremes of fashionable attire, bare arms and bare 
shoulders, flashing with diamonds and pearls, and with lace 
handkerchiefs that cost enough to feed the poor of a whole 
block for a week. Seldom since the days of Eugenie and Na- 
poleon III. have I witnessed such displays of wealth and 
fashion. Cloaks of costly feathers from India, wraps of gold 
embroidery, diamonds in hair, on fingers, on the low neck, and 
on shoulder ties; jeweled slippers, long trains of superb lace; 
the rarest thing, a beautiful face. Gentlemen in faultless 
dress suits bowed with conspicuous politeness to the titled, and 
summoned their carriages with a haughty wave of their hand 
to the footmen. Horses pranced without, cab doors slammed, 
whips cracked, and for an hour, till long after midnight, the 
gay crowd whirled away to halls, palaces, and draped apart- 
ments, while the poor boy, close by in the dark alley, was still 
probably trying to keep warm at the back of the miserable sot. 
4 * Oh, theologian, is the world the property of the Heavenly 
Father? Are we all his children? How. then, can such silly 
luxury waste God's fair possessions, while such poverty be- 
sots and crushes half the race? Something is wrong. There 
is a personal devil, and he has large share somehow in the 
present unexplainable complication. Some day we shall un- 
derstand. " 

In 1898 Mr. Conwell visited Egypt, Palestine, Constan- 
tinople, and the far East. 



CHAPTER X 

THE LECTURER 

It cannot be proved beyond dispute, but careful in- 
vestigation reveals the strong probability that Russell H. 
Conwell has addressed more people than any, other man 
living. He has been on the lecture platform thirty-seven 
years, and averaged two hundred lectures a year, besides 
preaching to the thousands who throng his church, and 
addressing the largest conventions that assemble in Amer- 
ica. He prepared fifteen popular lectures before he was 
thirty years old. During the year 1870 he wrote two 
books and went around the world, but in the same vear he 
delivered no fewer than two hundred and six popular lec- 
tures, days and evenings. The events of his busy life 
tread so ruthlessly upon each other's heels as to make a 
consecutive and self-consistent story of his undertakings 
the despair of his biographers. 

Churches have been established, magazines founded, in- 
ventions made, business enterprise undertaken, the dis- 
couraged have taken heart, the poor have become rich, 
teachers have adopted methods more in harmony with 
psychological laws, real estate has been advanced, hotel- 
keepers have become more thoughtful of the comfort of 
their guests, hundreds of young men have entered the 
ministry, thousands have secured an education, hundreds 
of thousands of characters have been ennobled, and heaven 



iio Russell H. Conwell 

will be the richer, in consequence of Conwell' s lectures. 
A winning cordiality, a glow of interest, an absorbing and 
all-unconscious magnetism, a quenchless enthusiasm com- 
municated through a delightful at-homeness, a sincere 
purpose to help the listener to be better, happier, and 
more useful for having heard the lecture — all make an 
evening with Conwell a profitable delight which one will 
want to repeat as soon as possible. 

A list of subjects which have caused thousands of audi- 
ences to thunder out their delighted approbation of the 
orator's power and eloquence covers a wide range of inter- 
est. As nearly as can be ascertained, the following list 
is given in the order in which the lectures were prepared : 

The Philosophy of History. 

Men of the Mountains. 

The Old and the New New England. 

My Fallen Comrades. 

The Dust of Our Battlefields. 

Was it a Ghost Story? 

The Unfortunate Chinese. 

Three Scenes in Babylon. 

Three Scenes from the Mount of Olives. 

Americans in Europe. 

General Grant's Empire. 

Princess Elizabeth. 

Guides. 

Success in Life. 

Acres of Diamonds. 

The Undiscovered. 

The Silver Crown, or Born a King. 

Heroism of a Private Life. 



The Lecturer 1 1 1 

The Jolly Earthquake. 

Heroes and Heroines. 

Garibaldi, or the Power of Blind Faith. 

The Angel's Lily. 

The Life of Columbus. 

The Seven Guardian Angels of Columbus. 

Five Million Dollars for the Face of the Moon. 

Henry Ward Beecher. 

That Horrid Turk. 

Cuba's Appeal to the United States. 

Anita, the Feminine Torch. 

The troublesome facts will not allow us to say that this 
list is anywhere near complete, because Mr. Conwell has 
lectured on so many kinds of subjects. It is simply a list 
of some of his popular lectures. Conwell is the most popu- 
lar lecturer in the world, which statement can be substan- 
tiated by the statistics of the lecture bureaus ; and, while 
his prices are high, lecture committees have found him to 
be one of the cheapest men on the platform. In a north- 
ern New England town whose population is less than a 
thousand, where he has been the main factor in the course 
since its organization five years ago, he has more than once 
caused a door sale of over a hundred dollars, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that his name in the course sold a large ma- 
jority of the tickets. He has a record, as in Beverly, Mass., 
which covers sometimes thirteen consecutive years. He 
combines instruction and entertainment with a master 
hand. His entertainment is instructive and his instruc- 
tion entertaining. Mr. Conwell travels over the greater 
part of the United States every year, but is seldom absent 
from his pulpit on Sunday. He frequently leaves Phila- 



112 Russell H. Conwell 

delphia at midnight, after a wearing day at The Temple, 
and whenever possible is back for the Friday-evening 
prayer-meeting. He has come from Kansas for a Sab- 
bath, and gone back again to resume his lecture engage- 
ments on Tuesday evening. How he can endure the wear 
and tear of travel, take a midnight train four nights a 
week, be subjected to the variety of cooking and climate 
found between Maine and Florida in a fortnight, and be 
back in his pulpit on Sunday morning with a new sermon 
fresh and inspiring, is a marvel to the most experienced 
commercial traveler. He rarely if ever misses a train, 
but is frequently compelled to make long drives over 
country roads, and often charters an engine to take him 
fifty or one- hundred miles in order to meet a lecture en- 
gagement, or to be in Philadelphia on prayer-meeting 
night. He uses no notes, and gives his lectures no 
thought whatever during the day. In many instances he 
goes on the platform not knowing what his subject is to 
be until he hears the chairman announce it in the intro- 
duction. If his lecture is new he occasionally has a piece 
of paper before him with a skeleton outline, or if it is a 
subject he has not handled for many months or years he 
looks at his notes and thinks intently for a few minutes. 
During those brief moments of absorbed thought the 
whole lecture reappears before his mind's eye, and is so 
vivid as to make its delivery a supreme delight. His fee 
for lecturing when he first began in New England was less 
than one-tenth of its present figure, and yet his popularity 
has increased in proportion to his price. 

He never delivers a lecture twice unvaried, and never 
goes to a town or city without a definite prayer to God to 



The Lecturer I i 3 

be so directed as to accomplish the greatest amount of 
good in that community. One man, who had just heard 
" Acres of Diamonds" for the third time, turned with 
beaming face to clasp hands with his neighbor, exclaim- 
ing, "It is better than ever!" A critic, writing for the 
London Telegraph, said in 1870: " The young man is 
weirdly like his native hills. You can hear the cascades 
and the trickling streams in his tone of voice. He has a 
strange and unconscious power of so modulating his voice 
as to suggest the howl of the tempest in rocky declivities, 
or the soft echo of music in distant valleys. . . . He ex- 
celled in description, and the writer could almost hear the 
Niagara roll as he described it, and listened to catch the 
sound of sighing pines in his voice as he told of the Caro- 
linas. He was so unlike any other speaker, so completely 
natural, that his blunders disarmed criticism." 

It is a noticeable fact that the great majority of his lec- 
ture engagements are in small cities where the practica- 
bility of what he says is more easily tested. Mr. Conwell 
frequently leaves a sum of money with the editor of the 
leading paper in the town where he lectures, to be given 
as a prize to the person who advances the most practical 
ideas for utilizing the waste forces of the neighborhood. 
In a Vermont town he made a suggestion, in a private 
conversation after delivering "Acres of Diamonds," that 
there was a great deal of water-power going to waste in 
the community which should be utilized to make its citi- 
zens more prosperous and happy. A fee left with an 
editor was awarded to a young man who pointed out the 
further fact that the timber of that section was especially 
adapted to making coffins, and proposed that the water- 



H4 Russell H. Conwell 

power be harnessed to a coffin factory. A sum of $2,000 
was immediately raised for this purpose and a competent 
superintendent sought. This is an illustration of innu- 
merable tangible results which have come from the brain 
of this practical man — a man of ideas and a man of 
prayer. A gentleman who was in a position to know the 
facts gave out the statement, in 1 894, that over a thousand 
discouraged manufacturers were known to have been helped 
to success by " Acres of Diamonds," and are now among our 
wealthiest men. One Vermont town of three hundred local 
inhabitants gave Conwell an audience of eight hundred. 
He frequently receives $150 a lecture for one hundred 
successive evenings. In some States he receives as high as 
$250 every evening; and so great is the demand for return 
engagements in cities where he has been the drawing card 
in a course for years, that he was compelled to refuse an 
offer of $39,000 for a six-months' engagement in Australia. 

A few conservative press notices will help the reader to 
a clearer view of Con well's degree of popularity, and un- 
fold some of his elements of power as a lecturer. 

" Mr. Conwell has repeated ( Acres of Diamonds ' at 
the Academy of Music three times with equal success in 
one year." — Philadelphia Inqitirer. 

u The only lecturer in America who can fill a hall in this 
city with three thousand people at a dollar a ticket." — 
Philadelphia Times. 

" He has been in the lecture field but a few years, yet 
he has already made himself a place beside such men as 
Phillips, Beecher, and Chapin." — Londo?i Times. 

" The lecture was wonderful in its clearness, powerful 
and eloquent in delivery. The speaker made the past a 



The Lecturer 115 

living present, and led the audience, unconscious of time, 
with him in his walks and talks with famous men." 

kk When engrossed in his lecture the reverend gentle- 
man s facial expression is a study. His countenance 
conveys quicker than his words the thought which he is 
elucidating, and when carrying reference to his Maker his 
face takes on an expression indescribable for its purity." 

"The orator just seems to hold the people as children 
stare at brilliant and startling pictures." — London News. 

"It is of no use to try to report Conwell' s* lectures. 
They are unique. Unlike anything or any one else. 
Filled with good sense, brilliant with new suggestions, 
and inspiring always to noble life and deeds, they always 
please with their wit. The reader of his addresses does 
not know the full power of the man." — Springfield Union. 

"His stories are always singularly adapted to the lec- 
turer's purpose; each story is mirth-provoking. While 
the audience chuckled, shook, swayed, and roared with 
convulsions of laughter." 

Mr. Conwell has a wonderful and happy faculty of caus- 
ing people to think, to ponder deeply, while they are com- 
pelled to smile, and at times fairly shake with laughter. 
His stories are a part of the lecture, and are never 
introduced for the purpose of resting his audience. A 
visitor at The Temple, speaking of Conwell's voice, said: 
u It was like the music of a fountain, like the invitation of 
the sea, like the perfume of lilies — a wonderful voice." 
He is a great reasoner, a deep thinker, and excels in hu- 
mor. His lectures fairly scintillate with bright thoughts 
expressed in eloquent words. 

Mr. Conwell received the suggestions for many of his 



1 1 6 Russell H. Conwell 

lectures from traditions which were told him in foreign 
lands. In another chapter we have related a story of Ali 
Hafed, which suggested the lecture on " Acres of Dia- 
monds." His lecture on " A Jolly Earthquake, cr How 
to be Happy," is based upon a legend so weird and fan- 
tastic that it seems to be a creation of fancy rather than 
a fragment of sober Japanese belief. Tradition states 
that when the last of the Christian martyrs, in 1635, w ^re 
about to be hurled from the cliffs of 44 Oshima Island," 
which was wholly a mountain of rocks, a great earthquake 
shook the island, and peals of awful laughter were heard 
on every side. Even in the midst of crashing rocks and 
falling cliffs the inhabitants were attacked by hysteri- 
cal convulsions of laughter. When the earthquake had 
passed the island had become almost a level plain, while 
the terrible executioner was drowned. There, they say, 
the Christians ever afterward lived unmolested until they 
died of old age. 

" The Silver Crown, or Born a King," he introduces by 
relating a tradition told him by a guide while looking 
about the ruins of the palace of Akbar the Great, ruler of 
Hindostan, of a silver crown that had been unclaimed 
for fourteen years because the people would not be ruled 
by one who was not born a king. Finally the astrologers 
were consulted, and saw in the stars that when a man was 
found whom animals would follow, the sun serve, the 
waters obey, and people love, there was no need to ques- 
tion his birthright, for he was born a king. This man 
was found in the person of a simple hunter, who, in prac- 
tical ways, filled all these requirements and who ruled the 
people of India for forty years. 



The Lecturer 1 17 

Incidents of men who have become rich, made inven- 
tions, and founded noble enterprises as a direct result of 
hearing " Acres of Diamonds, " could be multiplied al- 
most indefinitely. It will be of more practical value to 
the reader to know the fundamental idea of the lecture, 
which we have given, so far as space will permit, in the 
Appendix. A few illustrations must suffice in this con- 
nection. 

A gentleman in Pontiac, Mich., who had lost his money 
in real estate speculations and was going into bankruptcy 
went to a neighboring town one evening to hear Conwell 
lecture. He went home and said to his wife : " Conwell 
said the place to get rich is at home. I will make my 
money where I have lost it." He returned to his busi- 
ness with renewed courage, and is now president of a 
bank, and a leading financier of the town. 

A poor farmer in Western Massachusetts had become 
utterly discouraged, and tacked up on his front gate, 
"This farm for sale." He heard "Acres of Diamonds," 
and returned to his farm with a determination to raise 
what the people needed, which, for his markets, meant 
small fruits. He is now a rich man. 

The man who made the trolley car a possibility for many 
cities, by inventing ,4 the turnout " and switch system, re- 
ceived his suggestion from hearing " Acres of Diamonds." 

A gentleman gave $800 to one of the great fairs held 
in The Temple, Philadelphia, who had received a sugges- 
tion from " Acres of Diamonds " that led to the invention 
of an improved oven which brought him thousands of 
dollars. 

A teacher in a small country school near Montrose, Pa., 



1 1 8 Russell H. Conwell 

was so impressed with the practical ideas advanced in Mr. 
Conwell's lecture at a Teachers' Institute, that he resolved 
to teach what the children most needed to know, and added 
agricultural chemistry to their list of studies. The next 
year the local school board elected him principal of one 
of the Montrose schools, and he has since been superin- 
tendent of education and president of the State University 
in Ohio. 



CHAPTER XI 

MRS. SARAH SANBORN CONWELL 

The relation of Christ to the Church is a revealed mys- 
tery, not a mystery revealed, The earthly relationship 
bearing closest analogy to the mystery is the relation of 
husband to wife. Husband and wife are two parts of one 
complete whole ; " They twain shall be one flesh. " " For 
this cause shall a man leave father and mother and be 
joined unto his wife." For what cause? That vital pow- 
ers may be conserved, and the race perpetuated under cir- 
cumscribed and normal conditions ? That is not the root 
of the matter. The relationship consists in the essential 
unity of the two, and the incompleteness of the one with- 
out the other. Gen. ii. 23, 24 : " And Adam said, This is 
now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be 
called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. There- 
fore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall 
cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh." 

What beautiful testimonies the great of our land have 
borne to the influence of mother ! Our immortal Lincoln 
said: " All that I am I owe to my angel mother." The 
nobler the man the more beautiful the tribute, the deeper 
the appreciation. Did space permit, we might insert the 
testimony of many a man whose gratitude impelled him to 
leave, for a materialistic age to contemplate, expressions 
of his indebtedness to a loved mother whose example, pre- 






. 




^Sl".. «* 




Q^^^df? .^«^r 



Mrs. Sarah Sanborn Conwell 121 

cepts, and faith saved him from the slough of despond, and 
was the determining" factor in making success possible. 

Man is not complete without mother. He is not com- 
plete without child. He is not complete without wife — 
11 Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." 

Is it not the plan of Providence that the love of wife 
shall have in it possibilities for helpfulness, blessing, and 
refinement of character exceeding even the influence of 
mother and' father? That marriage should be looked upon 
so lightly, and, through the laxity of law, it should have 
become so easy to uncrown a woman whom God crowned 
as wife and mother, is indeed a dark cloud on the national 
horizon. But the sleeping conscience of Christian people 
respecting divorce is being aroused. When the true sig- 
nificance and divine possibility of the marriage relation 
are perceived the angels will pay more frequent visits to 
American homes. The nobler the man the more depend- 
ent he is on human companionship and love. Coarse and 
callous men are indifferent to environment, but men of 
fine sensibilities faint and fall unless braced by hearts 
that love them. 

None who know the warm heart which beats in Russell 
H. ConwelTs breast could ever think of him as choosing a 
life of solitude. 

" Home's not merely roof or room, 
It needs something to endear it. 
Home is where the heart can bloom, 

Where there's some kind lip to cheer it. 

" What is home with none to meet, 

None to welcome, none to greet us? 
Home is sweet, and only sweet, 

When there's one we love to meet us." 



122 Russell H. Con well 

The influence of a beautiful woman came across his path- 
way at a time when he greatly needed so pure an affection 
to sweeten the bitterness of his struggle. Mrs. Sarah 
Sanborn Conwell was born in Parsonsfield, Me. Her 
father, Hon. Luther Sanborn, was a well-to-do and influ- 
ential farmer, who took an active part in politics. He 
was for two years a member of the State legislature ; for 
an equal period a State senator ; and for many years an 
intimate friend and admirer of James G. Blaine. Mr. 
Sanborn died in 1865, and was buried on his sixty-second 
birthday. Mrs. Conwell' s mother, Mrs. Sarah Hayes 
Sanborn, survived her husband several years, departing 
this life in 1877, aged seventy-three. For forty-six years 
she lived an earnest Christian life, bearing testimony be- 
fore many witnesses. We are grateful for the glimpse of 
her beautiful life which an appreciative friend has left 
on record : " Of an evenly happy temperament, kind and 
generous disposition, possessing a calmness and cheerful- 
ness consequent upon her simple faith and complete resig- 
nation to the will of Heaven. She died as she had lived, 
peaceful, resting upon the merciful promises of God." 

Miss Sanborn and Colonel Conwell met at a Christmas 
entertainment held at a German mission in a suburb of 
Newton Centre, Mass. She was then a member of the 
Baptist Church and an active Christian worker. There 
was a sympathy in outward relations, a common end to 
which both were beginning to turn their attention with 
enthusiasm and zeal. Her style and quality of woman- 
hood was just that which his type of manhood required in 
the delicate adjustment of human affections: she gentle, 
tender, considerate, refined, affectionate; he strong, mas- 



Mrs. Sarah Sanborn Con well 123 

culine, awkward, yet with a deep vein of tenderness in his 
nature, and conspicuously considerate of the comfort of 
others. A refined and subtle sentiment, flavored with 
romance, soon ripened into friendship and crystallized into 
love. They were married on April 23d, 1873, at the 
home of her brother, John H. Sanborn, of Newton Centre. 
Something of the culture and standing of the family is 
seen in the class of people who attended the wedding — over 
three hundred of the elite of Newton Centre and Boston. 
Many costly presents were received; one, *a check for 
$1,000. They began housekeeping in the colonel's new 
home on College Hill, Somerville, Mass. 

Since their own mother's death, Mr. Conwell's children, 
Nina and Leon, aged four and a half and three years re- 
spectively, had been tenderly cared for by their grand- 
mother Hayden. Lovingly and wisely did the new 
mother care for the babes to whom the father, in the rush 
of a crowded life, could give but little personal attention. 
One child, a daughter, Agnes Elizabeth, now Mrs. Alfred 
Barker, of Philadelphia, came to cement their union. 
She is a charming woman, having inherited the rich men- 
tal gifts of her talented parents. 

The early years of Mrs. Conwell's married life were 
characterized by many trying experiences, such as call out 
the latent qualities of a woman's nature and show how brave 
she can be in hours of gloom and transition. They had been 
married but a short time when financial reverses swept 
away her husband's fortune — $50,000 — in a day. The thou- 
sands which belonged to Mrs. Conwell, and the new and 
beautiful hflme, were gone like a flash. After boarding for 
a short time, and upon the death of her brother's wife, the 



124 Russell H. Conwell 

Comvell family moved to the home of Mr. John H. Sanborn, 
where Agnes was born, and where they lived until the be- 
ginning of the Philadelphia pastorate in November, 1882. 
As the wife of the pastor of the largest Protestant church 
in the United States, Mrs. Conwell occupies a position of 
extreme delicacy, involving the sacrifice of much that is 
dearest to a wife's heart. If she were not of a superior 
type of womanhood she would be a conspicuous failure. 
There are no earthly standards by which to measure her 
usefulness. We are told that the method of consummate 
art is to avoid applying to your heroine any epithet de- 
scriptive of her beauty, but to give the reader an impres- 
sion of her character by portraying the effects produced 
by her presence. Mrs. Conwell's love for her husband is 
of that deep and tender kind which seems to understand 
the reason for any seeming act of thoughtlessness. She 
is considerate of her husband's mental distractions. She 
knows he is bearing burdens and doing work which would 
crush three ordinary men, and wonders how he can do so 
well. He is the busiest of men. For fourteen years he 
was not able to spend one evening with his family in the 
Philadelphia home. His own children scarcely knew him. 
He often sits at the table so burdened with pressing prob- 
lems that he does not know what he is eating, and cannot 
be mindful of others. She understands perfectly without 
explanation, and there are no self-assertive protests over 
that which cannot be helped. For many years Mrs. Con- 
well was her husband's private secretary, and, in addition 
to the usual duties pertaining to such a position, kept in 
touch with the spiritual needs of the membership and the 
financial needs of the building committee. She was for 



Mrs. Sarah Sanborn Conwel! 125 

several years treasurer of the great fairs held annually in 
the Lower Temple, and has been at the head of a number 
of fairs held in other large buildings of the city for the 
benefit of the Samaritan Hospital. She was for a time 
chairman of the Committee on Household Economy in 
Temple College. These and many other public ministra- 
tions, in addition to the cares of her household, have ab- 
sorbed her time and consumed her strength. 

It is not in the home, however, but in The Temple that 
nerve and heart are most severely tested. Mrs. Conwell 
married a lawyer. When her husband was called into the 
ministry she was not called to be any the less a woman 
with nerves and delicate sensibilities. It might be a 
good thing for preachers' wives if they could have an ex- 
tra set of iron nerves to use on occasion. To bear all the 
work of her husband in her mind and upon her heart; to 
have her home-life ruined ; to live a life of self-sacrifice 
every day ; to know that thoughtless people are rushing in 
upon her husband with petty personal matters and burden- 
ing him unnecessarily five minutes before the service be- 
gins ; to know that people of culture are in The Temple 
from distant cities who have heard Mr. Conwell lecture, read 
of the great work he is doing in Philadelphia, and are there 
in an expectant attitude to hear the great preacher who so 
captivates his lecture audiences ; to feel a true wife's pride 
in the one whom she loves with all a woman's heart, and 
know that his time is being so taken up as to allow him no 
chance to prepare a sermon, precluding the possibility of his 
doing his best ; to lay it all on the altar of self-abnegation, 
and, when the " Amen " of that loved husband is echoing 
in the rafters, to have a smile for every handshaker and a 



126 Russell H. Conwell 

word of sympathy for every stricken or sorrowing member — 
that is a life beautiful beyond description. She ministers 
in the sphere in which true womanhood finds its highest 
mission, and in which it contributes its divinely appointed 
quota to the world's progress and humanity's happiness. 

Such is the second wife of Russell H. Conwell, to whom 
he was married at the age of thirty years, who came into 
his heart and life at a time when he most needed the 
sweet, gentle influence of a wise, home-loving companion 
who would from the throne of wifehood's exalted privilege 
further mold his life for God's purposes. 

The counterpart of a public man, burdened with re- 
sponsibility and covered with the dust of the arena, is a 
confiding, retiring woman who graces his home with the 
gentle domestic virtues, making home the dearest spot on 
earth — one place to which he can fly and find rest. There 
the tired head is soothed by affection's fond caress. There 
faith is nerved until it becomes invincible — a retreat which 
he enters a bundle of nerves, and from which he emerges 
a man of clear vision and steady hand. Such were the vir- 
tues of the Roman matrons in the days when the imperial 
city sat on her seven hills and from her throne of beauty 
ruled the world; when Sulpicia fled from luxury to share 
the exile of her husband. Alas for Rome ! Decline of 
womanly virtues is the certain precursor of national decay. 
We speak of " The glory that was Greece and the grandeur 
that was Rome." Both nations have crumbled under the 
ravages of time. But while Roman wives and mothers 
were true to their heaven-appointed mission there were 
invincible commanders at the head of her armies and elo- 
quent statesmen in her senate. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE AUTHOR 

In the midst of his vast professional and humanitarian 
labors, Mr. Conwell has illustrated his ability to utilize 
spare moments by the production of no fewer than nine- 
teen books. It is greatly to be regretted that his life has 
been so overcrowded as to allow of almost no leisure for 
uninterrupted literary labor. In his active brain — 

" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen w 

for lack of time to put his thoughts and inspirations into 
words which posterity would be as unwilling to let die as 
Bryant's " Thanatopsis," or Scott's "Lady of the Lake." 
It will be a great loss to American literature should Mr. 
Conwell die without a few years of freedom from excessive 
toil, which would enable him to give full vent to his mar- 
velous powers of description in the field of authorship. 

All his published works have been w T ritten to fill some 
pressing need, and mostly on the train during extended 
lecture trips. In a few instances he has set aside a 
limited period, and, repairing to some hotel convenient to 
his sources of information, has given himself wholly to 
the composition of a volume and completed it in less than 
three weeks. Sometimes he has worked from four o'clock 
in the morning till twelve at night, and at the end of three 
weeks the printer would hand him for correction proof 
sheets of the last chapter. His most carefully prepared 



128 



Russell H. Conwell 



work, "The Life of Daniel Manin," was ruined while in 
manuscript form, when the Newton Centre home was 
partly destroyed by fire. Mr. Conwell had collected much 

valuable informa- 
t i o n respecting 
Italian history, 
and the loss was 
irreparable. 

With so little 
time allowed for 
the composition of 
a volume, it is no 
small wonder that 
his hurried work 
as an author has 
met with so great 
acceptance and 
popular favor. 
The explanation is 
probably to be 
found in the 
strength of his 
imaginative pow- 
ers, enabling him to portray truthfully the heart's deepest 
experiences, and show his readers fascinating pictures of 
real life. In his writings he has told what people most 
wanted to know about the subject in hand. To read his 
descriptions is to revel in a series of delightful panoramic 
views. 

We give a complete list of this busy author's books, 
with the date of publication: 




RUSSELL H. CONWELL AT THIRTY-TWO 



The Author 129 

Lessons of Travel, 1870. 

Why and How Chinese Emigrate, 1871. 

Nature's Aristocracy, 1871. 

History of the Great Fire in Boston, 1872. 

The Life of Gen. U. S. Grant, 1872. 

Woman and the Law, 1876. 

The Life of Rutherford B. Hayes, 1876. 

History of the Great Fire in St. Johns, 1877. 

The Life of Bayard Taylor, 1879. 

The Life, Speeches, and Public Service of. James A. 
Garfield, 1880. 

Little Bo, 1883. 

Joshua Gianavello, 1884. 

The Life of James G. Blaine, 1884. 

Acres of Diamonds, 1888. 

Gleams of Grace, 1889. 

The Life of Charles H. Spurgeon, 1892. 
.. The Life of Daniel Manin, destroyed. 

A True Story, unpublished. 

The Life of St. Paul, partly prepared. 

His first volume, " Lessons of Travel," appeared imme- 
diately after Mr. Conwell's return from his third trip to 
Europe. It was prepared during the journey, and is an en- 
larged form of his lecture of the same title. It has long 
been out of print. The material for " Why and How 
Chinese Emigrate" was collected while on his journey 
around the world, but the book was written in Somerville. 

The title-page gives a clearer idea of its contents : 
" Why Chinese Emigrate and the Means They Adopt for 
the Purpose of Reaching America, with Sketches of 
Travel, Amusing Incidents, Social Customs, etc." 



130 Russell H. Conwell 

A lady who lived next door to the Conwells remembers 
that " Jennie" helped him greatly in the preparation of 
the manuscript. This timely volume was described by a 
critic as being " the best book in the market of its kind." 
The New York Herald, in reviewing it, said : " There has 
been little given to the public which throws more timely 
and intelligent light upon the question of coolie immigra- 
tion than the book written by Col. Russell H. Conwell, of 
Boston." Though the awkward country boy was but 
twenty-eight years old at this time, he had been in all 
parts of the world, and was frequently alluded to in the 
leading journals of England and America as " the most 
fascinating word-painter of the day." 

" Nature's Aristocracy" was edited for Miss Jennie 
Collins, a very estimable lady and successful mission 
worker of Boston. It came from the press the same day 
as the book about the Chinese. 

On November 9th and 10th, 1872, occurred the great fire 
which swept the principal business section of Boston with 
relentless fury. The city of brains, culture, and business 
presented a ghastly spectacle of sixty acres of devastation. 
In a few weeks appeared Conwell's " History of the Great 
Fire in Boston." His purpose seems to have been three- 
fold : First, to portray a scene of which no one who had 
not seen Vesuvius in furious eruption, or heard the thun- 
ders of Stromboli, could form any adequate conception. 
Second, to record the active sympathy and fraternal feel- 
ing which poured into Boston hundreds of thousands of 
dollars from all over the United States and Canada, and 
from several cities of the old world, and thus stimulate 
faith in humanity. Third, to point out some causes of 



The Author 131 

conflagrations (as wooden roofs on granite and steel build- 
ings), and thus avert similar disasters in the future. 

A sample of Mr. Conwell's realistic descriptions will 
recall to the minds of some who read this book a mental 
picture they cannot efface from memory : 

"The Old South clock had just struck seven, when a 
pedestrian hurrying up Summer Street noticed something 
strange about the structure [a warehouse], and paused a 
moment to satisfy his curiosity. The gigantic fortress was 
silent and immovable, and the outlines of its ornamented 
roof and cornice cut sharp corners against the sky ; while 
a dull, moaning sound, as of distant waters, was all that he 
heard. Were the owners inside? Oh, no! They had 
closed their shutters, balanced their accounts, covered their 
counters, locked their safes, and, with thoughts intent on 
the evening's joys or the morrow's rest, hurried away in 
fancied security. They dreamed, as millions have dreamed 
before, that they of all others were the most safe. The 
week of prosperous manufacture and trade illumined their 
waking dreams, until the delusive light appeared to shine 
far into the future, showing to them, as to others, commer- 
cial hills of beauty and valleys of social peace. 

" The weary footsteps of clerk and agent had long since 
died away as they sought the thresholds of uptown homes ; 
and yet an unearthly, half-stifled groan came from the 
building, as though an army sighed within. Then sud- 
denly a stream of flame, red as living blood — like a hid- 
eous specter-gleam from the regions of hell — flickered 
and flashed in the darkened room of an upper story and 
confronted the moonlight on the window-panes with its 
hideous shadows of smoke and flame. The gigantic ware- 



132 Russell H. Conwell 

house was on fire ; and Summer Street, with all its wealth 
of merchandise, was in danger. Yet the confident owners 
knew it not; and the silks rustled as richly about the 
sweet faces in luxuriant halls as though no volcanic Titan 
was heaving, puffing, and tugging to get at their piles of 
merchandise and well-filled vaults. Will they smile to 
morrow when he is king ? 

" Sooner than it can be told, and before the alarm could 
be given, the fiery monster within, as though the building 
were a frail prison house, lifts the floors and shakes the 
windows ; and before his presence is known even to the 
solitary pedestrians whose footsteps echo in the deserted 
arches, he roars with a voice of continuous thunder and, 
bursting the window-panes, thrusts out his lurid fingers to 
clasp the cornice and casings which adorn the street front. 
Then, impatient of restraint, and laughing at granite, he 
lifts himself, and spreads his arms of fire. The walls 
divide, the roof falls; and the demon most dreaded of 
earth is free to crush and devour, till the city weeps in 
dust and ashes, and the wealthy are made poor." 

Surely one is justified in sending into a crowded book- 
market a volume which records such messages of practical 
sympathy as poured into Boston from hundreds of sister 
cities. The following was from Chicago : 

" Hon. William Gray, Chairman : We thank God that if you 
need it, the relief society can send your afflicted city a hundred 
thousand dollars. When we remember the prompt and gener- 
ous way in which you came to our help a year ago, we wish it 
were ten times as much. May Heaven sustain your noble 
people ! 

[Signed.] "Wirt Dexter, 

" Chairman Executive Committee" 



The Author 133 

The " History of the Great Fire in St. Johns " is almost 
too sad to read. Mr. Conwell said in his preface : " It is 
a hideous story at the best, full of the very saddest events 
and most exciting scenes. The contemplation of that 
disastrous evening, that lurid night, that pile of spectral 
ruins, makes us hesitate to dip the pen; yet it should be 
written. " 

Mr. Conwell's Life of U. S. Grant, Life of Hayes, 
Life of Garfield, and Life of Blaine were written imme- 
diately upon the nomination of these statesmen for Presi- 
dent by the Republican Party. He went to the home of 
each, and collected much useful and unpublished informa- 
tion from old neighbors and friends. He told his readers 
what they desired to know about the early life, personal 
character, and achievements of these candidates, dwelling 
at length upon the early days and struggles with poverty 
and hardship which would be most suggestive to poor 
boys, who find — 

"This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, 
Slow rises worth by poverty depressed/' 

The Life of Garfield had an indifferent sale at first, 
and, upon the failure of his publishers, Mr. Conwell was 
glad to dispose of the plates for $100, receiving no royalty. 
The publisher who purchased the plates made $25,000 
from the sale of* the book after Garfield's assassination. 

In 1884 a certain publisher engaged Mr. Conwell to 
write the life of the candidate whom the Republican Party 
named for President of the United States. In a few 
hours after the nomination Mr. and Mrs. Conwell left 
Philadelphia for Augusta, Me., where he could inter- 



134 Russell H. Conwell 

view Mr. Blaine at pleasure. In three weeks the book 
was completed. The train which was to take Mr. and 
Mrs. Conwell from Augusta whistled for the station while 
the rapid author was correcting the last page of proof. 

For the Lives of the Presidents, written by John S. C. 
Abbot and Russell H. Conwell, the latter wrote a short 
but very comprehensive life-stOry of the Presidents from 
Grant to Arthur inclusive, and a concluding chapter on 
" One Hundred Years' Progress." In Mr. Conwell's in- 
troduction to the book, we notice the same determination 
to appreciate the good and make prominent the beautiful 
and hopeful which characterizes all his writings. Surely 
the optimist is of more service in the world than the pes- 
simist, and, in the nice adjustment of the actual to the 
ideal, it is as important and as healthful to appreciate the 
good as to denounce the evil. He says : 

" There are few persons who can read the record of the lives 
of the Presidents of the United States without conviction that 
there is no other nation which can present a consecutive series 
of twenty rulers of equal excellence of character and adminis- 
trative ability. 

" Probably the least worthy of all our Presidents would rank 
among the best of the kings whom accident of birth has placed 
upon hereditary thrones: and not an individual has popular 
suffrage elevated to the presidential chair whom one would 
think of ranking with those many royal monsters who have in 
turn disgraced all the courts of Europe. This record settles 
the question that popular suffrage, in the choice of rulers, is a 
far safer reliance than hereditary descent." 

In the closing paragraph of the book he says : 

" Such prestige and position among the nations of the world 
may be a subject of pride or a subject of humiliation accord- 
ing to the manner in which we use it." 



The Author 135 

"It is now time that every citizen of the republic should 
feel that the nation does not live for itself alone, but that the 
maintenance of all c its free and enlightening institutions not 
only insures peace, prosperity, and happiness at home, but also 
by the powerful force of example hastens the approach of that 
period when all mankind shall be also blessed with the ines- 
timable boon of civil and religious freedom/ w 

In "Woman and the Law," the lawyer-author defines 
woman's true sphere; refers to the abnormal expressions 
of her true advancement; recommends that women be 
given the right to cast ballots on such matters as a re- 
spectable number of them shall desire to have submitted 
to female suffrage; enumerates woman's privileges before 
the law; and concludes : " She is not compelled, except by 
the conditions of her own nature, to suffer oppression or 
abuse from any man. And it is to give a hint of their 
possessions to such as know not their power, and under- 
stand not their position under the law, that this book is 
written. The right to be free as a man, the right to be 
pure as the angels, the right to be happy as the happiest, 
the right to be noblest of the noble, richest of the rich, 
wisest of the wise, is theirs before the law of the land. 
Lord, hasten the day when they shall know their rights, 
1 and knowing, dare maintain.' " 

When Bayard Taylor died (while United States minis- 
ter to Germany), December 19th, 1878, there was universal 
expression of regret, and many public meetings were held 
to pay tribute to his memory. There was a call for a 
truthful biography of the great poet and traveler. Mr. 
Conwell was peculiarly fitted for this undertaking, having 
passed through many experiences similar to those of Bayard 
Taylor, and been associated with him many months as 



136 Russell H. Conwell 

traveling companion while correspondent for English and 
American papers. The biography of 360 pages was begun 
after Mr. Taylor's death, and was on sale when the body 
arrived in America. Five thousand copies were sold be- 
fore the funeral. This biography, while written under 
circumstances which usually warp opinions and make a 
true estimate of character well nigh impossible, had an 
enormous sale. There have been many calls for it in 
recent years, and pity it is that it is out of print. Having 
traveled over the same territory and feasted his eyes on 
the same scenes of entrancing beauty or historic interest, 
no one could have pictured the great traveler from Ken- 
nett with such fascinating realism as did Conwell. 

" Little Bo" is a Sunday-school book which this inde- 
fatigable worker wrote during a summer vacation. It is 
an exposition of the ninth chapter of John. 

" Joshua Gianavello, Captain of the Vineyards of 
Lucerna," another product of this active brain which 
could not be satisfied with preaching and lecturing every 
night during vacation, is dedicated : " To the many be- 
lievers in the divine principle that every person should 
have the right to worship God according to the dictates of 
his own conscience ; and to the heroic warriors who are 
still contending for religious freedom in the yet unfinished 
battle." It relates the experiences of a fearless Walden- 
sian who loved religious liberty and feared neither inquisi- 
tion nor devil, but would die before yielding to the de- 
mands of Papal emissaries. No one who had not traveled 
extensively, especially in the Alpine mountains of North- 
western Italy, could picture those life-and-death struggles 
for the purity and simplicity of the Apostolic Church 



The Author 137 

which the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed, 
in such rugged and fascinating style. 

" Acres of Diamonds " is an enlarged form of his great- 
est lecture, and has had a very large sale. Of all that 
class of books which deal with the burning problems of 
opportunity and success, we are safe in saying " Acres of 
Diamonds " has no equal. The business side of the second 
great commandment is exhibited in the sparkling light of 
flashing diamonds, and character and large-heartedness are 
shown to have a commercial value. 

" Gleams of Grace is a book of sermons. 

When Spurgeon died in 1892, Mr. Conwell was absent 
from Philadelphia on an extended lecture trip in the West. 
A publisher telegraphed to know if he would write the 
life of Spurgeon, and received the affirmative reply that he 
would, provided the royalty be given to a young church 
which had been a mission of the Grace Baptist. Years 
before, when he was a newspaper reporter, the ever- watch- 
ful observer had taken notes on the great London preach- 
er's life and work, not dreaming that he should ever use 
them for the purpose of a biography. Now they came in 
play in an emergency case. It was a time when Mr. Con- 
well was burdened with excessive financial responsibility, 
and lecturing every week-night. His secretary, Mr. El- 
dridge, joined him in Chicago, and Mr. Conwell dictated 
the life of Spurgeon on the train during the day, and the 
secretary copied the chapters on a typewriter from steno- 
graphic notes during the evenings when Mr. Conwell was 
lecturing. At the end of two weeks the book, of over 600 
pages, was nearly completed. It had a sale of over 200,000 
copies. No man living was better qualified to reflect the 



138 Russell H. Conwell 

experiences and unfold the problems of Mr. Spurgeon's life 
than the great preacher whose lifework resembled Spur- 
geon's in many particulars. Mr. Conwell has been called 
the " Spurgeon of America." It is a doubtful compliment 
for any man to be spoken of as an echo of another, and 
borders on the sacrilegious. Mr. Conwell is not an imi- 
tator or reflection of any one, and his habits of thought 
and the class of people reached give the comparison but 
little weight. 



CHAPTER XIII 

FROM BAR TO PULPIT 

Mr. Conwell has a passion for philanthropy. He felt 
the call of God directing him to the ministry of the Gos- 
pel when a child, and although personal ambition became 
confederate with desire for prominence, so dear to the 
oratorical temperament, in turning him aside from his 
heaven-appointed work, he was ever restless in the profes- 
sion of law. . 

Between the time of his opening a law office on Bridge 
Square, Minneapolis, in the spring of 1865, until his ordi- 
nation to the ministry in Lexington, Mass., January, 1880, 
he spent about one-half of his time in newspaper work, be- 
sides writing nine books and lecturing from one hundred to 
two hundred evenings a year. Such a crowded life and 
divided mind precluded his attaining eminence in a profes- 
sion where legal scholarship is the great thing, and close 
application a prerequisite to the highest success. Never- 
theless Conwell's income from his legal practice reached 
the $10,000 mark one year, and hundreds of cases were 
carried through the courts for poor people, widows, orphans, 
and army comrades without any fee. At the time of his 
settlement in Minneapolis in 1865 he was very poor, and 
as clients came slowly, he began to negotiate for the sale 
of town lots and acted as agent for his intimate friends, 
the Thompson Brothers, of St. Paul. He was local cor- 



140 Russell H. Conwell 

respondent for the St. Paul Press, and in a few months 
owned and edited a daily and weekly paper, CanweWs 
Slav of the North, in connection with which he managed a 
job-printing business. A brilliant orator and editor of 
a daily paper could not keep out of politics. Conwell can- 
vassed the neighboring districts for the Republican and 
Temperance parties, and made the acquaintance of many 
public men whose friendship was valuable to him in later 
years. 

A great man is one who accomplishes large results with 
small means. Conwell's aptitude for using whatever he 
had in the accomplishment of some good purpose is illus- 
trated by the fact that when there were but two rooms in 
his home he established a business men's noonday prayer 
meeting in one room, his law office, thus laying the foun 
dation for the Y. M. C. A. of Minneapolis, which was 
organized in one of those meetings. 

His first law case was as attorney for himself, and 
established a reputation for his client. A born leader 
and lover of sport, the young lawyer was the popular presi- 
dent of a skating-park organization, which employed an 
uncertain Irishman to keep a portion of the Mississippi 
River, above St. Anthony's Falls, clear of snow. Pat had 
come to this country thinking that all men were created 
equal, and could not endure the thought of his shoveling 
snow from a spot where those young professional chaps 
would enjoy an evening's recreation from office work. In 
the second place, Pat was a liberal in theology, and took 
the liberty of taking a little whisky for his appetite's sake, 
instead of following Paul's medical prescription of " A lit- 
tle wine for thy stomach's sake and thine oft infirmity." 



From Bar to Pulpit 141 

This downtrodden and depressed devotee at the shrine of 
John Barleycorn exercised his rights in the enjoyment of a 
three-days' drunk. Snow remained on the ice, and, the 
carnival being interrupted, the president refused to sign 
an order for Pat's remuneration, whereupon the whole com- 
pany, including a hundred young men, were sued at law for 
damages. " Peace hath her victories no less renowned than 
war." The hundred young men marched up to court in a 
body. After the Irishman had testified amid shouts of 
laughter in the unruly court-room, Lawyer Conwell raised 
the point that there were another hundred citizens belong- 
ing to the society yet to be heard from. The amused old 
justice dismissed the case. 

Conwell made money rapidly, and soon owned a fine 
house and a large law library, both of which were destroyed 
by fire. His possessions were estimated to be worth $25,- 
000 when his health failed, and he was compelled to leave 
Minneapolis. When his health had been restored and he 
could again turn his attention to law, he opened an office 
in Somerville, Mass. , near Boston. There, too, he began 
to purchase and sell real estate. Here he prospered. His 
newspaper work and lectures had made him known, and 
clients filled his office. Had he narrowed his work to the 
law at this time he would undoubtedly have become rich. 
But his experiences with poverty had made his heart ten- 
der, and his mind was too unsettled to make the accumu- 
lation of a fortune the goal of his ambition. He went into 
real estate speculation and lost $50,000 in one venture. 
He indorsed for friends, and they left him to pay their 
debts, in one instance to the amount of $10,000. His in- 
timate acquaintance with many Senators and Representa- 



142 Russell H. Conwell 

tives gave him influence at Washington, and his reputation 
for refusing fees for securing pensions for soldiers or their 
widows and orphans caused him to be besieged on every 
hand by applicants for pensions. His partners said he 
never lost a pension case and never made a cent by one. 
This legal friend of the poor kept the following advertise- 
ment in the Boston daily papers : 

" Legal Advice for the Poor. 

u Any deserving poor person wishing legal advice or assist- 
ance will be given the same free of charge any evening except 
Sunday, at No. 10 Rialto Building, Devonshire Street. None 
of those cases will be taken into the courts for pay." 

He frequently made political speeches, and managed one 
campaign for Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, who, running on 
an independent ticket, was elected by a large majority. 
His one political venture was as candidate for the State 
legislature, but he was defeated on the temperance issue. 
At another time he was urged to accept the nomination 
for Congressman from the Fifth Massachusetts congres- 
sional district, but refused. He prepared and presented 
many bills to congressional committees at Washington, 
and appeared as counsel in many contested election cases. 
Always unselfish, giving his best energies to the help of 
unfortunates, he was drifting steadily toward the ministry. 
At the close of a lecture on " Lawyers," in Freeman Place 
chapel, January 3d, 1874, he gave the following advice, 
which he said was given from a pure love of humanity, and 
not from a love of gain : " Never go to law as a plaintiff, 
and as rarely as possible as defendant. Settle your diffi- 



From Bar to Pulpit 143 

culties, if you have any, by arbitration, and the lawyers 
will yet have business enough to keep them in practice." 
Comrade Higgins wrote : 

" Another remarkable thing about his practice was, that 
neither he nor his law partners would ever take a case into 
court if their client was in the wrong, nor into the criminal 
trials if the defendant was guilty. No offers of money could 
bribe him to do it. It is an honor to our old commonwealth 
that such lawyers can still be found practising at the bar. But 
the fact that it was known that he would not take a case he 
knew was wrong made villains the more anxious to secure him. 
I do not suppose he escaped deceit always. 

" One case which leaked out, and was published at the time 
in the Boston Sunday Times ^ made much fun for Colonel Con- 
weirs colleagues. A young fellow who appeared like a saint 
convinced Lawyer Conwell that he was not a pickpocket as 
charged. Colonel Conwell was certain of the young man's in- 
nocence, and went to the district attorney to urge that the in- 
nocent man should not have his name in the papers. When 
the case came up for trial, Colonel Conwell and his client sat 
close together. After he had addressed the court it was at 
once agreed that the case should be dismissed by the district 
attorney's consent. So lawyer and client walked out of court 
triumphantly. When they reached Colonel ConwelPs office, 
the defendant paid the fee out of his lawyer's own pocket- 
book, which he had stolen while Colonel Conwell was stoutly 
asserting his innocence to the court. The reckless thief told 
of it, and returned the pocketbook afterward. 

" During those years of most arduous toil he started from 
his home at Newton Centre at five o'clock in the morning 
regularly, and by the time his clerks and students came to his 
office he had the day's work of each carefully laid out. It was 
a life of work, work, work; no rest. Yet his income from his 
law practice was very small. It was also at times very per- 
plexing. Other attorneys thought he was getting rich. The 
poor who paid him nothing insisted on believing that he was 
paid by some rich charitable institution. Often the ungrate- 
ful clients would abuse him for his rigid adherence to the right. 



144 Russell H. Conwell 

" One man with whom he sat up whole nights to save him 
from delirium tremens, and whose fine in the courts Colonel 
Conwell paid, was a common example. He wanted to borrow 
money. Colonel Conwell would not lend it. The drunkard 
became angry and attempted to stab Colonel Conwell to the 
heart. The Colonel knocked the assassin down with a heavy 
notarial seal, then carried the bleeding villain tenderly to the 
hospital and cared for him there. At one time he was guardian 
over sixty orphan children. " 

It should be remembered that from boyhood Mr. Con- 
well had been struggling against a conviction that he ought 
to be a minister of the Gospel. Once when a boy his 
mother called him in from the old stone fence, where he 
had been delivering a sermon to the barnyard fowls, and 
told him God had called him to preach the Gospel of 
Christ. When Martin Conwell returned, his wife told 
him what a brilliant sermon their promising son had deliv- 
ered to the fowls, and how certain she was that he would 
be a preacher. Martin was much gratified at the prospect, 
and told Russell how glad he w r ould be to know his son 
would preach the everlasting Gospel. Russell felt that it 
was to be his lifework, and resolved to do it. With the 
unfolding of the years, however, came other ambitions 
crowding one upon another, and both Martin and Miranda 
Conwell went to their graves little hoping that their bril- 
liant son would ever stand in a pulpit. Still, years of 
wandering in foreign lands did not suffice to drown the 
pleadings of the Spirit in his troubled breast, and he was 
continually disturbed by the providence of God pressing 
upon him the thought that the Gospel ministry was his 
vocation. One form of his rebellion against the divine 
will was his adoption of the extreme views of an atheist. 



From Bar to 



Pulpit 



145 



He had registered at Yale College as an atheist. Yet he 
did believe in God and in the teachings of the Bible. He 
believed in the religion of his mother, and was never an 
immoral or profane young man. Feeling the truth of 
Christianity, he had a satanic spirit of criticism — a shal- 




AT " EAGLE'S NEST 



low backwater into which the devil tows a man when he 
finds his bark out of the channel of God's revealed will. 
" When thy judgments are in the earth, then will the in- 
habitants of the world learn righteousness. " While living 
in a Christian home, with the example of a praying father 
and mother, and the blessing of God upon his undertak- 
ings, he refused to accept the truths of the Bible ; but 
when left on a battlefield for dead, racked with pain, with 



146 Russell H. Conwell 

the groans of the dying all about him, he came to himself, 
and turned toward his Father's house. Restless and self- 
condemned, he studied his Greek Testament, collected a 
valuable theological library, gathered photographs of an- 
cient manuscripts and sacred places, taught a Bible class, 
gave away large sums of money to the poor, did a great 
deal of Sunday-school work, and preached at mission sta- 
tions ; yet all this increased his unrest rather than satisfied 
his conscience. The most definite change came at the 
death of his wife; but, feeling uncertain as to his fitness 
for the ministry, and excusing himself on the ground that 
he had no opportunity to attend a theological seminary, he 
plodded on through the years. Soon after his second mar- 
riage Providence moved him down to Newton Centre, where 
Newton Theological Institution is located ; but still he 
pulled against the current. 

In 1879 a young woman — Mrs. Barrett, now teaching as 
a missionary at Atlanta, Ga. — visited Lawyer Conwell to 
ask his advice respecting the disposition of a Baptist meet- 
ing-house in Lexington. The Lexington church had gone 
to sleep many years before, and the active membership had 
dwindled down to four. At last a woman determined that 
something should be done. Where would one-half of the 
churches of the world be to-day if a few devoted women 
had not taken them upon their hearts and carried them to 
prosperity? Conwell visited Lexington, and called the 
brethren together to secure legal action on the part of that 
body, preparatory to selling the property. They talked 
the matter over and were reluctant to vote either to sell, 
keep, or give away. They had done nothing for years ; 
now they did not know their own minds. One good old 



From Bar to Pulpit 1 47 

deacon wept to think " Zion had gone into captivity." 
Their extremity was both their own and Conwell's oppor- 
tunity. " It flashed upon me while sitting there as a law- 
yer, that there was a work for me." The lawyer advised 
the hesitating old saints to keep their meeting-house, hold 
prayer-meetings in it, secure a preacher, and have service 
on Sundays, repair their house, get to work for God, and 
he would work with them. Such advice from a lawyer! 
Even the aged saints had never seen it on that wise. " Is 
Saul also among the prophets? " 

" But where shall we get a preacher? " 

" Here is one who will serve you until you get one you 
like better, or who can do you more good." 

" But we are poor; we have no money." 

"The preacher won't cost you as much as the lawyer." 
Certainly not; that is the law of universal application. 
"Announce preaching in the old meeting-house next Sun- 
day," said he. 

The windows were broken, the pews were moldy, the 
plastering hung in unequal patches from the ceiling, the 
stove had rusted out at the back, the old crow's perch of a 
pulpit creaked under the military tread of the tall lawyer, 
but service was held. This w r as no radical change in Mr. 
Conwell's life, for he was engaged in mission work some- 
where every Sunday. There were sixteen in the audience 
the first Sunday, sixty the second, and the house was dan- 
gerously full the third. The steps broke down an hour 
before the service began, and even an attempt to build a 
fire in the old stove succeeded in smoking out none but 
invalids. The captivity of Zion was turned. God had 
visited his people. Lexington had made a name for her- 



148 Russell H. Conwell 

self in 1775; but for many years the Baptist contingent 
had waited for a man — a man for 1879. Men to shoot 
British soldiers were not needed now. A man of God is 
always a man of his time and for his time. They had 
needed a preacher in Lexington for many years, and Con- 
well had long been in need of just such a field, but no one 
brought them together until a praying little woman arose 
and became an ambassador for Christ. 

It was a fit scene for a great painter, that Sunday in the 
Lexington church; the old saints looking up to the strong 
man in the old-fashioned pulpit through misty glasses, feel- 
ing a strange sense of gratitude that the broken-down altar 
of the Lord should be visited by so many scores of their 
old neighbors who came to hear the Word; the eager 
throng pressing into every foot of standing-room ; the 
shackly old meeting-house in danger of tumbling down on 
its unexpected visitors; the strong man of thirty-seven 
years in the pulpit under the cross-fire of the hosts of 
heaven and the emissaries of hell, each battling for the 
young giant who had lived on the borderland for many 
years. Conwell noted in the eager throng of listeners a 
further confirmation of his early call to forsake all and fol- 
low Jesus. When a man thinks he is called to preach and 
finds that no one is called to hear him, he ought to decide 
that the inward call was misunderstood ; but here was an 
audience too large for the building. 

That a lawyer should practice and that a preacher 
should preach were commonplaces in Lexington. It re- 
mained for them to learn that a lawyer could preach and a 
preacher could practice. That night Mr. Conwell resolved 
that Lexington should have a new church. A poor church, 



From Bar to Pulpit 149 

only four members, not a dollar in the treasury, no influ- 
ence in the community, no rich man upon whom to call. 
"Faith is the victory that overcomes the world." He 
spoke of the need of a new church to two of the members 
after service, and received the only answer that common 
sense would prompt ; but uncommon sense had come to 
Lexington. Mr. Conwell and an aged Christian man spent 
the greater part of that night in prayer. Early Monday 
morning the new parson bought a pick and a woodsman's 
ax, and began work without a dollar and alone. , His in- 
tention at first was simply to build new steps for the pres- 
ent ; but when he cleared away the old steps he found the 
sills w 7 ere all rotted off, and a new building must be 
erected. The weather-boarding came ripping off, the 
studding began to give way under the strong blows of 
the preacher-mechanic. Soon Mr. Conwell was covered 
with dust and dripping with perspiration. In a short time 
a respected citizen of the town, but one who seldom went 
to church, came along the old Lexington road, and seeing 
a black coat hanging on the fence and a Boston lawyer 
tearing down the old Baptist church, inquired : 

"What in the name of goodness are you doing here? " 

" There is going to be a new church here," answered the 
preacher. 

"I guess you won't build it with that ax," said the 
neighbor, laughing at the idea. 

" I confess I don't know just how it is going to be done," 
said Mr. Conwell, "but in some way it will be done." 

The spectator shouted at the ludicrous idea, and walked 
away. He had not gone far before he turned about, and, 
walking up to Mr. Conwell, seized the ax and said : 



150 Russell H. Conwell 

" See here, preacher, this is not the kind of work for a 
parson or a lawyer. If you are determined to tear this 
old building down, hire some one else to do it. It does 
not look right for you to be lifting and pulling here in this 
manner." 

" We have no money to hire any one, and the structure 
must give way if I have to do it all alone," said Mr. Con- 
well. 

"I tell you what I will do," said the visitor; "if you 
will let this alone, I will give you $100 to hire some one." 

" We would like the money," said the working minister, 
"and I will take it to hire some one; but I shall keep 
right on with the work myself." 

"All right," said the visitor; "go on if you have set 
your heart on it. You can come up to the house for the 
$100 any time to-day." 

The donor passed up the road, but he was hardly out of 
sight before a good-natured man who disliked churches in 
general came along, and enjoyed the fun of seeing the 
minister puff at the heavy timbers. 

"Going to pull the whole thing down, are you? " said 
he to Mr. Conwell. 

" Yes, sir, and begin all new," answered the minister. 

" Who is going to pay the bills? " asked the new visitor. 

" I don't know now, but the Lord has money somewhere 
to buy all we need." 

The man laughed heartily, and said, " Til bet five dol- 
lars to one you won't get the money in this town." 

"You would lose," said Mr. Conwell, "for Mr. 

just came along and gave me $100." 

" Did you get the cash ? " asked the astonished spectator. 



(( 1 



From Bar to Pulpit 151 

No; but he told me to call for it to-day.' ' 
1 Well, is that so ? I don't belteve he meant it. Now, 
I'll tell you what I'll do. If you really get $100 out of 
that man, I will give you another hundred, and pay it to- 
night. " 

Then the preacher worked on alone all day. Passers by 
called one after another to ask what was going on. To 
each one Mr. Conwell told of his hopes and mentioned the 
gifts. Nearly ever one added something without being 
asked, and at six o'clock, when Mr. Conwell hung up his 
pick and ax at the end of his day's work, he was promised 
more than half the money necessary to rebuild a commodi- 
ous church. But he did not leave the work. With shovel 
or hammer or saw or paint-brush he worked day by day all 
that summer alongside the workmen. He was architect, 
mason, carpenter, painter, and upholsterer, and he directed 
every detail from the cellar to the gilded vane, and worked 
early and late. The money came without asking as fast as 
needed. 

One day in the early days of the building enterprise, 
Mrs. Conwell visited Lexington, and remarked to one of 
Mr. Conwell's admirers that the prospects seemed very 
dark to her mind, whereupon the enthusiastic friend sug- 
gested that " Mr. Conwell would make a first-class country 
parson. I will plant some extra pumpkins, and we will 
make you a donation. " No further protests were heard 
from Mrs. Conwell. Indeed, it is due to her to say that 
she encouraged her husband to yield to the promptings of 
his conscience and enter the ministry. 

The Lexington people gathered around Mr. Conwell 
with enthusiasm. A fair was held, which was made the 



152 Russell H. Conwell 

occasion of a visit from the governor of the State, and 
several hundred dollars Were realized. Three weeks more 
than a year after the first consultation occurred the dedica- 
tion. In less than ten months $6,835.50 had been raised 
and expended by the church, leaving a debt of $1,500 at 
the dedication. The building was 65x45 feet; the en- 
trance was by wide doors under an overhanging porch, 
then by easy stairs to right and left to the upper floors and 
the auditorium. The basement, in the rear of the entry, 
was furnished with kitchen, closets, and other conveniences 
of the day. The auditorium was 43 x 43 feet, and connect- 
ing with it by means of folding doors was a room 24 x 22 
feet, while over this was a gallery. These adjuncts gave 
to the church a seating capacity of nine hundred. Panels 
on either side of the pulpit were lettered : " This is my 
commandment, that ye love one another as I loved you," 
and "Be thou faithful unto death"; while the arch in 
the rear of the pulpit was spanned with " Our church 
home." 

The real test came when Mr. Conwell was called to the 
pastorate after the building was completed. It was indeed 
a. great step for a man with thirty-seven years on his shoul- 
ders, and with bright prospects in another profession. 
Some of his old legal, political, and social friends called it 
fanaticism, and Wendell Phillips remarked to him one Sun- 
day morning that " Olympus had gone to Delphi, and Jove 
had descended to bean interpreter of oracles." Mr. Con- 
well replied to the call of the church very lovingly, saying 
that he wished that he was certain what the Lord would 
have him do, and rested his final decision on the number 
of people who would go to a neighboring Baptist church 



From Bar to Pulpit 153 

and be baptized. He was ordained in January, 1 880. The 
examining council gave him a rigorous examination; but 
the only objection made was by a good old pastor, who 
said : " Good lawyers are too scarce to be spoiled by 
making ministers of them." 

His preaching was plain, practical, and orthodox, evi- 
dencing a broad charity for all sincere followers of the 
lowly Nazarene, and his sermons were profusely illustrated. 
He kept close to the fundamentals of Scripture, affirming 
that the Savior's death upon the cross was the vicarious 
sacrifice for human sin, without an interest in which no 
man can enter the kingdom of God. He did not move to 
Lexington, but drove over from Newton Centre every 
Sabbath and frequently through the week. His salary 
was $600 — afterward raised to $2,000 — but his carriage 
was frequently loaded with provisions while he was preach- 
ing. 

It was a sad day for Lexington when Mr. Conwell de- 
cided to accept a call to Philadelphia. The congregation 
wept bitterly. He left them with but little debt, and with 
a membership of one hundred and fifteen. 

While pastor at Lexington he took a selected course in 
theology at Newton Theological Institution. 





<OU4££0 




CHAPTER XIV 



CONWELL THE PREACHER 



A genius is a character most interesting to study, but 
most unsafe to imitate. In fact, it is impossible to imitate 
genius, though very easy to imitate the mannerisms and 
peculiarities of a man of unusually strong personality. 
Mr. Conwell's sermons are conspicuously unlike those of 
most other preachers, and consequently afford us a more 
interesting and helpful subject for study, because in the 
absence of certain well-recognized excellences the untried 
or least utilized powers are more prominently in evidence. 
Thus we are enabled to see his strong points in their true 
relation to his success, and receive whatever of suggestion 
or helpfulness his life may have for others. 

Mr. Conwell is a sermonic lecturer rather than a preacher, 
as that term is ordinarily used. He is not a theologian. 
He is not an expository preacher. He is not homiletical 
in his sermonizing. Nevertheless, he holds and blesses 
people by his pulpit utterances as do few men of to-day. 
His sermons are often of such a fragmentary and story-tell- 
ing fashion as scarcely to deserve the name of sermon. 
They are plain, practical talks upon some one idea, and 
three-fourths of the time is consumed in illustrating that 
idea by every-day incidents and historical references. It 
is a wonder how he can hold such a vast concourse of peo- 



156 Russell H. Con well 

pie year after year and feed them on such a scanty diet. 
But let us approach a little nearer to these peculiar dis- 
courses and see what there is in them. There is some- 
thing valuable and potent, for they accomplish wonderful 
results. By their fruits we know them to be things of 
life. In the first place, there is one idea — only one. The 
pastor of the largest Protestant church in America is too 
close a student of human capacity to suppose that the aver- 
age mind is able to grasp the full significance of three 
ideas — firstly, secondly, and thirdly — at one sitting. If a 
verse of Scripture does contain more than one idea, he fre- 
quently takes a single clause as a text ; as, " She loved 
much " ; " Go work in my vineyard " ; " For the wind was 
contrary "; " My grace is sufficient for thee " ; "And it 
was night." The Bible which lies open on the desk of 
Grace pulpit is an intensely practical book. It not only 
contains the Word of God — it is the Word of God. 
Through it God speaks to the pastor. There is God's 
great storehouse of manna, and he has called into his 
service a strong-minded, loving-hearted, discriminating 
shepherd, and given him a liberty as broad as the necessi- 
ties of his flock, and commanded, " Feed my sheep." 
This shepherd feeds in such a manner as to stimulate 
growth and repair broken-down tissue, but does not surfeit 
the flock; does not give them food which is full of dyspep- 
sia ; does not allow of too great a variety at a meal ; re- 
members that they will soon again be back in the busy, 
crowding world, and the food must be of such a nature as 
to allow the processes of digestion to begin at once. It 
must be something easily assimilated, and that will send 
the man away from the table desiring more, and yet feel- 



Conwell the Preacher 157 

ing a good degree of satisfaction and wonderfully refreshed. 
Hence a little ripe fruit, a milk toast, a soft-boiled egg, 
and a portion of whole-wheat bread, The Temple pastor has 
found, satisfies hunger, keeps all members of the family 
in good working condition, refreshes the stranger within 
the gates, is relished by the dyspeptics, gives the outsider 
an appetite for the heavenly manna, and is real food to 
both young and old. It saves the Templars from the crit- 
icism, "Fed to death — need less feeding, more exercise." 
Mr. Conwell is a master in the use of illustration. In 
preaching, as in lecturing, he does not use an illustration 
for the purpose of resting his audience, but as a constituent 
part of his discourse. He sometimes states a truth and 
then illustrates it, vivifies it with an illustration ; but fre- 
quently he begins with the illustration itself, and allows 
it to lead the mind of the auditor up to his thought, thus 
arousing attention and awakening that keen sense of de- 
light which a little girl enjoys when she uses her rag doll 
to build up a conception of a beautiful wax doll, or a boy 
feels when he looks at his row of blocks and sees a real 
locomotive pulling twenty cars. He does not attempt to 
shovel truth into the minds of his audience as a coal-heaver 
loads his cart, but starts on the level and leads his audi- 
ence up by easy ascents, wide enough for all to step at 
once, higher and higher, the view becoming more ex- 
tended, the air more bracing, until in thirty minutes all 
stand on the summit. It is probably a peak they have 
often seen in the hazy distance, but on the top of which 
they have never stood. Perhaps the hearer does not know 
much more than he did before, but he realizes more. The 
thought has now become a part of his very self, and he is 



158 Russell H. Conwell 

by so much more a power than before. He knows some- 
thing definitely, and has something to take home with 
him which will help him in the struggle of life. He en- 
ters the church a man with a certain amount of religious 
information; he leaves it a man of religious culture. A 
possession has become a force ; a thought has become a 
life. An effective preacher must do two things — he must 
teach the truth, and show how the truth affects him. The 
hearer judges of the value of the truth by the effect it has 
on the preacher, and measures him with terrible accuracy. 
If the preacher is no more affected himself by the declara- 
tion, " God so loved the world that he gave his only-begot- 
ten Son," than by the mathematical formula, " Two and 
two make four," he will be a failure in beseeching men to 
be reconciled to God. No amount of ranting or strained 
elecutionary effect can be substituted for a genuine emo- 
tional appreciation of the truth presented. 

" It is the preacher's appreciation of what he proclaims," 
says Professor Neff, " which makes it attractive to other 
people. A man's personality is determined by the degree 
to which he emotionally appreciates what he knows. And 
it is this appreciation that determines the power of an ora- 
tor. It is not what a man knows, but it is the effect upon 
his mind and soul of w r hat he knows, that makes him an 
orator. And it is this same personality that measures 
success in pretty much all lines of human activity." 

Conwell's struggles for an education, his varied and pain- 
ful experiences, his extensive travel and breadth of study, 
his sympathy for and knowledge of all classes of people, 
his deep religious experiences — all contribute to his pulpit 
power. Respecting the subject-matter of his sermons, he 



Conwell the Preacher 159 

is now giving out what he has been a lifetime in accumu- 
lating. 

A second element of power in Mr. Conwell's preaching 
is that it is progressively constructive. He spends no 
time over denominational dilettanteism. His preaching 
shows a broad charity toward all sects of sincere believers 
in Christ, and he prays for as great blessings on other 
churches as he asks for his own. He is a sectarian, but 
not a bigot. During the early days when he and his church 
were subjects of frequent, and many times very unjust, crit- 
icism, Conwell counseled his people to speak kindly of 
those who spoke unkindly of them. He has been too much 
in earnest in his ministry to attempt to avail himself of 
the advantage resulting from criticism and persecution. 
Nothing builds up a church like persecution. Many an 
error has been brought into prominence and given a foot- 
hold by persecution, which, if it had been ignored, would 
have died a natural death. It was wise advice that Mr. 
Spurgeon gave to his students : " Go round the stumps and 
let them rot. " So great is this power that many religious 
sects, during their formative period, seek persecution, and 
some evangelists intentionally do and say much that will 
awaken unfavorable discussion for the purpose of drawing 
a crowd. The builder is of much more value than the 
iconoclast, the helper than the critic. " It may be safely 
affirmed," says Judge Brewer, "that a minister should 
never spend time talking about anything belief in which, 
one way or the other, will change no man's life and con- 
duct." 

Mr. Conwell pays little attention to what is said about 
him either pro or con, and never seeks to build himself up 



160 Russell H. Conwell 

by pulling others down. He maintains a very wise atti- 
tude toward all schools of Biblical criticism, while main- 
taining that divine revelation is the only safe anchorage 
for the souls of men. It has been well said that "the 
pride of intellect marks the headwaters of modern skepti- 
cism. " Reason has not solved all the problems of life. 
Undoubtedly higher criticism, which is an investigation of 
the literary structure, date, authorship, and amount and 
care of editorship of the books of the Bible, is a perfectly 
legitimate field of study; and if the Bible is to be examined 
as literature, as inevitably it will be in this scientific age, 
it is better that such questions as — Were there two Isaiahs ? 
Have there been errors of compilation? Is not the intro- 
duction to the book of Isaiah in the sixth chapter ? be 
investigated by scholars who are followers of Christ rather 
than by infidels, atheists, or German rationalists. But the 
function of a preacher is very different from that of a pro- 
fessor in a theological seminary, and a seminary graduate 
is very near-sighted if he takes his classroom work into 
the pulpit. It is unwise to bring before a mixed audience 
the theories of Biblical critics, and unfortunate for a 
preacher to maintain a critical attitude toward the Bible. 
The people need the application of Bible truth, not a crit- 
icism upon it. The Bible has stood nineteen centuries of 
criticism, and lovers of the dear old Book have nothing to 
fear from any modern school. Mr. Conwell once said : 
" In my ministry I have time to educate the fatherless, 
time to heal the sick, time to save souls, but no time for 
dilettante criticism of religion." While speaking to an 
audience at Ocean Grove in August, 1899, Mr. Conwell 
affirmed, "The Bible is God's word, and I believe it." 



Conwell the Preacher 1 6 1 

When he had concluded a woman arose and said, " Mr. 
Conwell, do you believe Jonah was swallowed by the 
whale? " " Yes, I do, and I pity the man who don't. " 

A member of The Temple congregation seldom hears a 
sermon on " The Mission of the Holy Spirit," or "The 
Baptism of the Holy Spirit," or " The Filling of the Spirit," 
or "The Leading of the Spirit" — a class of subjects 
which many of the most godly ministers have dwelt upon 
with marked results in the deepening of the spiritual life 
of their hearers. And yet there is probably not a church 
in America in which the will of the Spirit is more prayer- 
fully sought, and His guidance more implicitly obeyed, 
than in The Temple. Mr. Conwell presents the great truths 
relative to the Third Person of the Trinity from a practical 
rather than a doctrinal standpoint. His instruction and 
leadership are of such a nature as to lead his flock into a 
deep consciousness of the fact that green pastures and still 
waters are for those who obey the voice of the Good Shep- 
herd, and briers, thorns, rugged declivities, and barren 
wastes the inevitable portion of those who wander " away 
from the Shepherd's tender care." The sincere worshipers 
at The Temple know and feel that they can do wonders by 
living in vital contact with Christ, and humbly and prayer- 
fully desiring to be led by him. The history of that 
church confirms them in this belief. They also know that 
their best efforts will be fruitless unless willing hands and 
pure motives are directed by "him who is head over all 
things to the church." Many times their faith has scaled 
the heights far above the table-land of business sagacity, 
and when the blackening clouds of debt and distant mut- 
terings of impatient creditors set the worldly-wise blink- 



1 62 Russell H. Conwell 

ing their filmy eyes and protesting, "I told you so," God 
has parted the clouds, and, opening the windows of heaven, 
poured out enough dollars for every need, and supplemented 
it with spiritual blessings such as their past experiences 
had not developed capacity to receive. Mr. Conwell asks 
God to lead him in selecting, elucidating, illustrating, and 
applying his text so as to make it a definite and positive 
help to every person in the audience. There is usually 
something in his sermons which would appeal to every type 
of listener, whether believer or infidel, curious or indiffer- 
ent. This is made possible partly by Mr. Conwell's reli- 
ance on the Holy Spirit's leadership and partly by his apti- 
tude in interpreting God's providences. If he is conscious 
of a need of a single individual which is conspicuous above 
all others, he will aim his sermon at that person's need, 
not at the person. He does it in such a broad and com- 
prehensive way that every one can profit by it. " He hits 
them all," said the manager of a lecture bureau whom the 
author asked for reasons why Mr. Conwell is so popular 
in all parts of the United States. Some audiences like 
one lecturer, some another. Many who are applauded in 
isolated country villages are not favorably received in cul- 
tured Boston ; but in Mr. Conwell's elaborate menu any 
one can select a satisfying portion. That breadth of sym- 
pathy, variety of treatment, and inexhaustible mental re- 
source which explain why he has appeared on some lec- 
ture courses for thirteen years in succession are evidenced 
in his pulpit work. 

What is the function of a preacher in this age? Where 
is his stronghold in an age of such universal knowledge ? 
Can he hope to tell an intelligent audience very much they 



Conwell the Preacher 163 

do not know or cannot easily find out? Is he the best- 
educated man in the community, as was the minister in 
Puritan New England? Are there not specialists in many 
fields of research in a congregation of five thousand peo- 
ple? How is he to be of help to all and not fall far be- 
neath the attainments of many ? It is an age of specialists, 
but the preacher himself is a specialist in his sphere of 
applied Christianity. There is a Godward side to every 
man. There is a hunger which no amount of study can 
satisfy. There is an insatiable longing after something 
the world cannot give. When God made man, he did not 
bar himself out of his nature, and the world by its wisdom, 
by its organized knowledge, by its microscopes and tele- 
scopes, cannot find the God of revelation. The special 
business of the preacher is so to present the truth, so to 
present the God of truth, as to make the truth a living 
and burning reality in the hearts and lives of men and 
women of all classes, all professions, of every degree of 
culture and intellectual attainment. 

This age is conspicuous for the lack of that hungering 
and thirsting after righteousness which has the promise of 
being "filled." Men are not seeking after God so much 
as after wealth, position, and pleasure. The Gospel is not 
the sensation it was in apostolic times. The preacher oc- 
cupies the very difficult position of being commissioned 
and ordained to feed sheep that are not hungry and care 
but little for him or for the food he offers. This difficulty 
is enhanced by the fact that he must create the appetite 
for the Bread of Life. He must produce a thirst for the 
Living Water. He must awaken a sense of need of that 
for which he knows he has the remedy. How shall he 



164 Russell H. Conwell 

compel his audience of self-seeking, place-hunting, money- 
grabbing hearers to look squarely in the face the question, 
" What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul? " Jonathan Edwards once 
read a sermon from a manuscript, and his audience clutched 
the backs of the seats to keep from falling into hell as the 
preacher pictured "the sinner in the hands of an angry 
God. " But even Jonathan Edwards, probably the bright- 
est intellect of his century, could not do that now. Few 
men can produce a powerful impression when chained to a 
manuscript. To be able to write a beautiful and profound 
essay on some religious theme, take it into the pulpit on 
Sabbath morning, and read it with faultless elocution, may 
not be an unworthy ambition ; but to think out, pray over, 
and live a great truth for the realization of which the world 
is dying in the midst of all its boasted learning, until, under 
the inspiration of the whisperings of God in the soul, your 
words throb and pulsate with life — that is preaching, 
preaching that saves, preaching which the times demand. 
It is the kind of preaching under which little, struggling, 
debt-ridden Grace Church has grown in seventeen years to 
a position of influence and power which eternity alone can 
estimate. The highest effects in oratory are possible only 
in extemporaneous delivery of previously carefully prepared 
material. 

Mr. Conwell's preaching is open to criticism. He him- 
self often weeps bitter tears of self-reproach over the seem- 
ing nothingness of his pulpit utterances. It is true he has 
little time to prepare sermons ; frequently no time at all, 
until Sunday morning. It is a fact that few men with his 
cares and responsibilities would attempt to preach at all. 



Conwell the Preacher 165 

Few men of his reputation would have the recklessness to 
appear before so large an audience with such scant prepa- 
ration. But somehow the great Head of the church, know- 
ing that a consecrated life has been overcrowded with work 
every hour of the week, and that to bless his poorly pre- 
pared sermon will not be putting a seal of approval on lazi- 
ness, takes these practical thoughts and every-day incidents 
which his servant has picked up by the wayside and 
makes them so many torches to lead the wondering lost 
thousands back to the sheepfold — back to himself. The 
sermonic lecture, in which one idea is illuminated by Con- 
well'sinexhaustible fund of illustrations and pointed appli- 
cations, has the redeeming feature of being delivered for 
the purpose of accomplishing a definite spiritual result in 
the lives of those to whom he speaks, and of being pre- 
sented by one who is in dead earnest. 

"An orator," says Bishop Vincent, "is one who knows 
the truth, who loves the truth for the truth's sake, and who 
is able clearly and simply to express what he knows, and 
who is impelled to express it because of the love he bears 
to God and his fellow-men." 

And Mr. Conwell himself has said : " A man is elo- 
quent only in his relation to those to whom he speaks. 
There is a difference in the effect of ordinary words and 
the words of oratory. Ordinary language produces ordi- 
nary impressions and ordinary effects ; real oratory always 
produces extraordinary effects. To be a great orator re- 
quires that a man shall experience more than other people, 
and speak from experience ; he shall live more in the same 
length of time." 

There is a world of difference in the effect produced by 



1 66 Russell H. Conwell 

a sermon which is delivered simply because it is the cus- 
tom for the pastor to occupy the time between 11:15 and 
11 145 on Sunday morning with the presentation of some 
Scriptural theme, and the sermon which is delivered be- 
cause there are people in the audience who need that par- 
ticular truth at that particular time. Conwell takes his 
people a message, not a mere discourse. The audience 
feel that something has been said to them with a single- 
eyed determination to do them good. It has been said 
without a manuscript. The message has been lodged in 
their minds, and they can carry it away with them. If a 
man with college and seminary education cannot carry his 
thought into the pulpit without a manuscript after think- 
ing about it for a week, how will the average listener carry 
it home after thinking about it for half an hour? Since 
he who was the greatest of preachers, like whom " never 
man spake," laid down a rule applicable to the testing of 
sermons as well as lives, "By their fruits ye shall know 
them," it is unwise to measure Conwell's sermons by some 
man-made standard, and say : " There is little in them ; 
they are of a poor style." Once upon a time a little red- 
headed shepherd with a pebble faced a giant with a sword. 
Which one is armed in the proper style ? The test of style 
is, Will it bring down Goliath? If the terror of Israel is 
leveled with the ground, a sling and a pebble are the prop- 
er weapons for David. 

Mr. Conwell as a preacher is natural and original, often 
eloquent, sometimes intense, always helpful. Sidney 
Smith once remarked in conversation with Dean Ramsey, 
" Sir, in the sermon the sin against the Holy Ghost is dul- 
ness." The fact that Mr. Conwell presents the Gospel of 



Conwell the Preacher 167 

Christ in a rarely entertaining way does not make it any 
less the Gospel. He never sacrifices the Gospel truth to 
mere entertainment, neither does he forget that the high 
aim of his calling is to win souls to the Savior. He 
never hesitates to make use of a simple story in the pulpit 
if by it he can help some listener to comprehend a great 
truth. His stories are never introduced for the sake of 
the story, but as telling illustrations of the thought he de- 
sires to lodge in the mind. While his audiences frequently 
smile at some delicate touch of humor, Conwell never uses 
his wonderful descriptive powers to appeal to the comical, 
the irreverent, or the ridiculous. There is nothing profes- 
sional about his manner. He uses the plain, simple lan- 
guage of the common people, and the wearing of any pe- 
culiar kind of dress or cultivating a tone of voice that is 
unnatural or churchy is altogether foreign to him. True 
preaching is the manifestation of truth through personality. 
One cannot conceive of Jesus cultivating an ecclesiastical 
cadence of voice in order to render His preaching more 
acceptable to the fastidious. Jesus of Nazareth was a man 
among men, who taught the greatest truths in utter sim- 
plicity of language. The very essence of truth is plainness 
and brightness. The real test of a great man is his hu- 
mility. The bending of a great mind to sympathy with and 
love for the weak and the needy is one of "the marks of 
the Lord Jesus " which endears Conwell to thousands who 
know him. In his home, on the street, in his pulpit, 
preaching to an audience of one or to five thousand, he is 
the same unique, the same simple-hearted man of God 
and man of the people. 

The weather has but little effect upon Conwell' s audi- 



1 68 Russell H. Conwell 

ences. " For three successive years," said Mr. Conwell 
one Sunday, "our church has been refreshed by strong 
revival feeling during the heat of summer. The crowd 
which pressed into this church last Sunday evening until 
no more could find standing-room was a most significant 
sight to me. The middle of August in an unusually hot 
season is not the time wherein the people of a city have 
been wont to press into the house of God. How clearly 
the fact contradicts the popular belief that God will visit 
his people with revival inspirations only in the winter 
seasons \ God is no respecter of persons nor of seasons. 
Heat and cold, day and night are alike to him. Any 
church or individual sincerely desiring God's blessing can 
secure it in August as surely as in January. " 

Conwell is "orthodox" in his theology. In his church 
where the results have been so wonderful, and where great 
emphasis is laid upon works, justification by faith is recog- 
nized as the fundamental article of Christian life. 

One of Mr. Conwell' s peculiarities in preaching, and 
one which has proved an instrument of very efficient ser- 
vice in the cause of humanity, is his ability to connect the 
most ordinary affairs of every-day work with Scriptural 
truth in his illustrations. He does not advertise his sub- 
jects, and never chooses sensational topics for the sake of 
drawing a crowd ; but he helps people to secure the mate- 
rial blessings which a true service of the Almighty Father 
should bring to the consistent follower. He selects illus- 
trations which will help his audience to do better work, 
earn more money, secure an education, promote some wor- 
thy enterprise, or enjoy better health. During the build- 
ing of The Temple a devoted member, who was in the 



Conwell the Preacher 169 

bookbinding business, walked to his business every morn- 
ing and put his car-fare into the building fund. Mr. 
Conwell made note of the sacrifice, and asked himself the 
question, " How can I help that man to be more prosper- 
ous ?" He kept him in mind, and while on a lecturing 
trip he visited a town where improved machines for book- 
binding were employed. Conwell called at the establish- 
ment and found out all he could about the new machines, 
and the next Sunday morning used the new bookbinder as 
an illustration of some Scriptural truth. The result was, 
his devoted member secured the machines of which his 
pastor had spoken, and increased his income many-fold. 
The largest sum of money given to the building of the 
new Temple was given by that same bookbinder. 

A certain lady made soap for a fair held in the Lower 
Temple. Mr. Conwell advised her to go into the soap- 
making business. She hesitated to take his advice. Con- 
well visited the Colgate soap factory, and the next Sunday 
morning described the most improved methods of soap- 
making as an illustration of some improved method of 
Christian work. Hearing the illustration used from the 
pulpit, the lady in question acted on the pastor's previous 
advice, and started her nephew in the soap business. He 
prospered. 

A certain blacksmith in Philadelphia who was a member 
of Grace Church, but who lived in another part of the city, 
was advised by Mr. Conwell to start a mission in his neigh- 
borhood and take active steps toward founding a church 
for the salvation and convenience of his neighbors. The 
mechanic pleaded ignorance and his inability to acquire 
sufficient education to enable him to do any kind of Chris- 



170 Russell H. Con well 

tian work. One Sunday morning the self-made preacher 
wove into his sermon an historical sketch of Elihu Burritt, 
a poor boy with meager school advantages, who was bound 
out to a blacksmith at the age of sixteen, and was com- 
pelled to associate with the ignorant and shiftless, yet 
learned thirty-three languages, became a scholarly gentle- 
man and an orator of fame. The hesitating blacksmith, 
encouraged by the example of Elihu Burritt, took courage 
and went to work. He founded the mission which soon 
grew into the Tioga Baptist church. Hundreds of such 
instances might be mentioned. And what is the spiritual 
result of such preaching ? A revival all the year round, a 
church of devoted, self-sacrificing, spiritual Christians. Is 
the idea practical for other preachers, or is it peculiar to 
Conwell and Philadelphia? 

Here is another incident. A few years ago the pastor 
of a small country church in Massachusetts resolved to try 
Mr. Conwell's method of imparting useful information 
through his illustrations, and teaching the people what 
they needed to know. Acting on Mr. Conwell's advice, 
he studied agricultural chemistry, dairy farming, and house- 
hold economy. He did not become a sensationalist and 
advertise to preach on these subjects, but he brought in 
many helpful illustrations which the people recognized as 
valuable, and soon the meeting-house was filled with eager 
listeners. After careful study the minister became con- 
vinced that the farmers on those old worn-out farms in 
Western Massachusetts should go into the dairy business, 
and feed their cows on ensilage through the long New 
England winter. One bright morning he preached a ser- 
mon on " Leaven," and incidentally used a silo as an illus- 



Conwell the Preacher 171 

tration. The preacher did not sacrifice his sermon to his 
illustration, but taught a great truth and set the farmers to 
thinking along a new line. As a result of that sermon 
one poor farmer built a silo and filled it with green corn 
in the autumn ; his cows relished the new food and gave 
him a good flow of milk all the winter. That farmer is 
the richest man in the county to-day. This is only one of 
a great many ways in which that practical preacher helped 
his poor, struggling parishioners by using the Conwell 
method. What was the spiritual result of such preaching 
among the country people ? He had a great, wide, and 
deep revival of religion, the first the church had enjoyed 
for twenty-five years. 



CHAPTER XV 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GRACE CHURCH 

Sometimes great results are accomplished because a true 
leader — not one who is elected to lead nor one who aspires 
to lead, but one who leads by the exercise of superior 
moral and intellectual qualities, is at the head of a move- 
ment or organization; and sometimes the unusual is 
brought to pass because favoring circumstances are em- 
braced. A truly great man is he who accomplishes great 
results with small means. 

When Napoleon was asked where he got his marshals, 
he replied, "Made 'em out of mud." That answer came 
from a mind that had been intoxicated with power. It was 
the froth of effervescent conceit. Leonidas was supported 
at Thermopylae by three hundred Spartans. Grant gave 
his famous command, "By the left flank, forward !" to an 
army composed of "thinking bullets." Balaklava became 
a synonym of mismanagement and confusion, not because 
British soldiers once occupied the town, but because brave 
cavalrymen, knowing that " some one had blundered," when 
they heard the command, " Forward, the light brigade — 
charge for the guns ! " rode — 

"Into the valley of death 
Into the mouth of hell." 

No one man can accomplish much if he has nothing to 



A Brief History of Grace Church 173 

work with. Even the blacksmith, who is the king of me- 
chanics, because he can make his own tools, could accom- 
plish little without iron. 

What kind of material did Mr. Conwell have out of 
which to rear the great temple of which the building at 
Broad and Berks Streets, Philadelphia, is but the symbol ? 
To answer this question intelligently we must devote a few 




THE TENT 



pages to a brief historical sketch of Grace Baptist Church 
previous to Mr. Conwell's pastorate. 

One of the most active and successful Christian min- 
isters who wielded an influence for righteousness in 
Philadelphia during the second third of the nineteenth 
century was Dr. Joseph H. Kennard; and one of the 
noblest Christian enterprises which exerted a potent re- 
demptive influence in that city during the fifty years suc- 
ceeding 1838 was the Tenth Baptist Church, of which Dr. 
Kennard was pastor from its organization in 1838 to his 
death in 1866. This magazine of spiritual energy set in 
motion many forces and promoted many enterprises which 
are still playing no little part in the city's religious life. 



174 Russell H. Conwell 

Forty-nine ordained ministers had been members of this 
church at the time of its fiftieth anniversary. In 1840 Dr. 
Kennard baptized two hundred and fifty- seven converts. 

By 1844 the church numbered nine hundred and seven- 
teen members. It was a church that exercised its dis- 
ciplinary powers, and stood unflinchingly for the truth. 
Dr. Frederick Evans, the historian of the church, says: 
" In the year 1841, certain ' sinless ' people were cited to 
appear before the church. They were those spiritual 
crarks who appear now and then, and are thorns in the 
flesh of the pastor; who are always successful in killing a 
good prayer-meeting, and in spragging the wheels of a 
church. From such, ' Good Lord, deliver us.' The pastor 
and deacons tried to convince them of their delusion, but 
to no purpose, and they were excluded ' until God shall 
restore them to the fold of Christ ' — a strange procedure 
with people who did not sin." The Tenth Church organ- 
ized a number of missions and sent out many colonies of 
members to form other churches. Its members were 
aggressive, stalwart, spiritual, evangelistic, and well in- 
structed in Bible truth. 

In 1870 Dr. J. Spencer Kennard, who had succeeded 
his father in the pastoral office, suggested to some of his 
young men (younger in spirit than in years) that the 
Tenth Church should have a mission in the growing part 
of the city above Columbia Avenue. The Young Men's 
Association of the church took the matter upon their 
hearts and, on May 16th, 1870, appointed a committee 
consisting of Alexander Reed, Henry C. Singley, and 
Frederick B. Greul to select a suitable place in the north- 
ern part of the city to establish a Sunday-school and 



A Brief History of Grace Church 175 

prayer-meeting. This committee, to which the name of 
John A. Stoddart was afterward added, selected Bethune 
Hall, at the corner of Twelfth Street and Montgomery 
Avenue, and held their first prayer-meeting June 16th, 
1870. A Sunday-school was organized on June 19th, of 
which John A. Stoddart was superintendent, Henry C. 
Singley treasurer, and Alexander Reed a teacher. An 
Episcopalian lady, Mrs. M. H. Crawford, sent her daughter 
with a beautiful bouquet and twenty-five dollars in money 
to encourage the new school. A Presbyterian l'ady came 
and taught a class. The Baptists of the neighborhood 
rallied. The enterprise was called Kennard Memorial 
Mission. The average attendance reported for July, 1870, 
was: scholars .60, teachers 14. Religious services were 
held on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons, at which 
Drs. Kennard and Malcom, Mr. Greul, Mr. Hartman, 
and Deacon Stoddart often preached. These young 
workers from the old Tenth Church evidenced marked 
enthusiasm, and the interest grew from the beginning. 
The mission met a need, was born of true missionary zeal, 
and immediately gained a lasting hold upon the commu- 
nity. In April, 1871, it was deemed advisable that some 
one should devote his whole time to the field. The Rev. 
L. B. Hartman accepted the position, and within a few 
months had visited over a thousand families, hunting up 
children, unchurched adults, and isolated members of like 
faith. From this time on the mission held two preaching 
services every Sunday and usually two prayer-meetings 
during the week. With the " Week of Prayer," January, 
1872, a series of evangelistic meetings was begun which 
lasted four weeks and resulted in twenty-five conversions. 



176 Russell H. Conwell 

Up to this time little or no thought had been given to the 
advisability of organizing a church ; but now the need was 
imperative, and a church was organized February 12th, 
1872, with forty-seven constituent members, their acting 
shepherd being called to the pastorate, and John A. Stod- 
dart, Henry C. Singley, and G. G. Mayhew were chosen 
deacons. The recognition service was held in the Tenth 
Church on March 12th. Four days later twenty recent 
converts were baptized. By the end of the first year the 
church numbered one hundred and seven members. Be- 
thune Hall was soon crowded to its uttermost, and a lot 
was purchased at Berks and Mervine streets for the sum 
of $7,500, whereon was erected a tent with a seating 
capacity of five hundred. Connected with the opening 
service of the tent, August 25th, 1872, is an unusual in- 
cident. After addresses had been made by Drs. Malcom, 
Peddie, Rowland, and Wayland, an effort was made to raise 
the $1,200 due on the tent. A wealthy layman, Mr. 
William Bucknell, offered to pay the $1,200 provided 
the members of Grace Baptist Church should henceforth 
abstain from the use of tobacco. The alert chairman 
said, " All who are in sympathy with Brother Bucknell's 
proposition, please rise." The entire audience arose. 
They were in sympathy with it. Mr. Bucknell made out 
his check next morning for $1,200, and added, " On con- 
dition that the members of said church abstain from the 
use of tobacco." The paying teller hesitated to pay the 
check, and asked what the proviso meant, whereupon he 
was told that it was "a joke," and handed out the money. 
Grace Church would not be any poorer to-day if they had 
taken Mr. Bucknell's proposition seriously. The icy-cold 



A Brief History of Grace Church 177 

baptistery and lack of convenient robing-rooms did not 
chill the ardor of the rejoicing converts. In March, 1874, 
the tent was moved to a neighboring lot and a contract let 
for a new church building. By September, 1873, the 
Sunday-school numbered three hundred and eighty-eight, 
and the Rev. L. B. Hartman remembers that during that 
year seventy- three were baptized and one hundred and 
eleven received the hand of fellowship. In the follow- 
ing year fifty-six were baptized and one hundred and forty- 
four received the hand of fellowship. On March 10th, 
1875, Grace Church moved into the basement of their 
new building. These were years of struggle, prayer, and 
devoted service. It is recorded that one strawberry 
festival netted $426.42 and another $212.76. But dark 
days came. The financial burden became excessive. 
Judgment bonds came into frequent mention. The sheriff 
performed his stern duty and advertised the property for 
sale. A council of Baptist churches was called to deter- 
mine what should be done. The sheriff was persuaded 
to wait. Current expenses dropped behind. Some valu- 
able donations were secured, and the tide turned. The 
Rev. L. B. Hartman closed his work as pastor in Novem- 
ber, 1877. His labors had been greatly blessed. He had 
received over three hundred members into the church, and 
left it with a membership of two hundred and sixty-five. 
In May, 1878, the Rev. J. Green Miles was called to the 
pastorate and remained one and one-half years. During 
his ministry the outer walls were completed and the un- 
finished portion placed under roof. New life and energy 
were apparent, and Mr. Miles' pastorate was marked by 
notable instances of divine favor. In March, 1880, the 



178 Russell H. Conwell 

Rev. C. H. Kimball accepted a call to the pastorate. The 
upper room remained unfinished. In October, 1881, Mr. 
William S. Garrett presented the church with $6,000, and 
in June, 1882, a contract was let for the completion of the 
second story of the building. The pastorate of Mr. Kim- 
ball closed in August of that year. The church had 
passed through a variety of experiences. Many members 
left the church. The sunshine and shadow of those years 
had toughened the moral fiber of the faithful mission 
workers from the Tenth Church, and many kindred spirits 
had been gathered into the progressive band of enterpris- 
ing believers. They were Christians of a high order ; 
largeness of vision, invincible faith, readiness to under- 
take great things for God, and willingness to follow a 
trusted leader characterized them. The old tent was used 
for a mission, where hundreds of hopeless, homeless wan- 
derers were fed and taught the way of life, thus laying the 
foundations of what afterward became the Sunday Break- 
fast Association of Philadelphia. 

During the summer of 1882 the Rev. Dr. F. J. Parry, 
then of Brattleboro, Vt. , visited his father, who was a mem- 
ber of Grace Church, and recommended Russell H. Conwell 
as a desirable pastor for Grace. Deacon Alexander Reed 
went to Lexington to hear Mr. Conwell, and advised the 
church to hear him with a view to extending a call. Mr. 
Conwell came and preached for the church. They were 
delighted. The audience room could soon be completed, 
and Conwell was just the man to lead this progressive 
host. At this time the church had a debt of $15,000, and 
one of the arguments Deacon Reed used in urging Mr. 
Conwell to accept their call was that he " could save their 



A Brief History of Grace Church 179 

church." It is due Mr. Conwell to say that this was the 
motive which brought him to Philadelphia. The church 
then had a nominal membership of two hundred and 
seventy, of whom ninety were in active co-operation, and a 
Sunday-school of four hundred. Mr. Conwell accepted 
the call October 30th, and entered upon his duties on 
Thanksgiving Day. The church was filled with eager 
listeners at the second service. From this time finances, 
Sunday-school, prayer-meetings, all lines of work evi- 
denced new life. In March, 1883, it became * necessary 
to admit pew-holders by ticket at a side door, owing to 
the crowds attending the preaching services. The float- 
ing debts were paid. Improvements were made. Mission 
work was begun in various places. The membership was 
cut down to the actual working force soon after Mr. Con- 
well's pastorate began, but new members took their places 
so rapidly that many of the older members do not remem- 
ber that many names were dropped at that time. By 
February, 1884, the membership had reached five hundred 
and seventy-one. 

The legacy left by little Hattie Wiatt, of whom men- 
tion will be made again, was the impulse toward the 
creation of a Board of Trust to hold the funds of the 
Wiatt Mite Society. Her precious fifty-four cents bore 
sufficient interest to buy the house adjoining the church, 
which afforded increased church facilities. During these 
early days Mr. Conwell did a great deal of visiting and 
was often by the bedside of the sick. There was never 
any need for his discussing such burning questions as, 
" How to Reach the Masses," " Why Men Do Not Go to 
Church." He became a great favorite in the neighborhood. 



180 Russell H. Conwell 

He had candy for the children, a word of encouragement 
for the discouraged, a helpful suggestion for the mechanic, 
a word of appreciation for the housekeeper, a word of 
sympathy and brightness for the sick. His prayer by a 
sick-bed was a benediction. There was a beneficent con- 
tagion in the spirit of the man. The trustees' annual re- 
port in February, 1886, showed an income of $12,706.76, 
an excess of $116.35 above all expenses. The church 
grew to such proportions that something had to be done. 
The crowds became so great that a rainy Sunday was a 
relief to the pastor. At one time he proposed to divide 
the church into three churches, but none would leave the 
section of which Conwell was to remain pastor. He was 
leading a movement that was saving hundreds of people. 
He was presenting the Gospel in such a light that thou- 
sands were being disarmed of unbelief and enlisting as 
active Christians in the service of man and God. He w r as 
reaching the masses, blessing them, anchoring them. 
There was every reason to believe that with larger ac- 
commodations three times the number could be reached 
and blessed. There w r as nothing to do but move forward, 
— to undertake an enterprise warranted by past experi- 
ence, commensurate with present necessity, and in some 
measure an expression of that faith which past blessings 
had begotten. A house must be built which would fur- 
nish every one a seat who wanted to learn about God and 
have his own duty made plain. As early as December, 
1885, a fair was held for the purpose of raising money for 
a new building. The lot on which The Temple now 
stands was purchased in September, 1886, at a cost of 
$25,000. During the associational year of 1886, one 



A Brief History of Grace Church i 8 i 

hundred and forty-seven were added to the membership 
by baptism and thirty-four by letter. Easter Sunday, 
April ioth, 1887, was memorable because of the baptism 
of fifty-eight persons, the hand of fellowship being ex- 
tended to seventy new members. Plans were prepared for 
a new edifice, and an effort to raise money by means of 
lectures and a fair netted $4,948.13. One hundred and 
ninety persons were baptized in 1888, and the membership 
reached one thousand and ninety-three. Mr. Conwell had 
spent nearly forty years getting up steam. When he got 
on the right track in Philadelphia he opened the throttle, 
tied down the safety-valve, and has been going at a break- 
neck speed ever since. His run has been a record-breaker. 
Ground was broken for The Temple March 27th, 1889; 
the corner-stone was laid July 13th, 1890, and on the 1st of 
March, 1891, the house was occupied for worship. " Dur- 
ing the opening exercises," said the Philadelphia Press, 
" over nine thousand people were present at each service." 
The great throng overflowed into the Lower Temple and 
the old church building. Large as were the ideas of the 
Temple-builders, it would seem that they were yet smaller 
than the necessity for a new church home. Overflow 
meetings have continued to be a feature of The Temple 
service from that day. The only large subscription ever 
received from an outsider, and in fact from any one, was a 
gift of $10,000 on condition that the church be not dedi- 
cated until out of debt. The court decided that the 
agreement to call a building by the name of the organiza- 
tion worshiping therein was a legal dedication ; hence 
the meeting-house of Grace Baptist Church was called 
"The Temple." The building is of hewn stone ; the clear 



1 82 Russell H. Conwell 

dimensions are one hundred and seven by one hundred 
and fifty feet. From the sidewalk to the top of the dome 
is ninety feet. At the height of sixty feet, just above the 
half -rose windows on the front, is an iron outside balcony; , 
here on special occasions the band and the choir play 
sacred melodies and sing hymns, notably on Christmas 
and New Year's Eve and at Easter, filling the midnight 
air with sacred music. The Temple is four feet longer 
and twenty-six feet wider than Spurgeon's Tabernacle. 
The auditorium of The Temple has the largest seating 
capacity among Protestant church edifices in the United 
States. It contains 3,135 plush-covered opera chairs, 
with room for 1,200 additional chairs which can be placed 
without encroaching upon the main aisles. Its actual 
seating capacity is 3,710, which can be increased to 
4,200 with camp chairs. Under the auditorium and be- 
low the level of the street is the part of the building called 
the Lower Temple. Here are Sunday-school rooms, with 
a seating capacity of 2,000. Having their seating capacity 
taxed to the uttermost from the very opening of the great 
Temple in March, 1891, and overflow meetings on Sab- 
bath evenings of from 500 to 2,000, there have not been 
such conspicuous evidences of growth in attendance as 
might otherwise be looked for. There has been no place 
to seat the overplus in hearing distance of the pastor's 
voice. The membership at present, October, 1899, is 
2,814. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE GROWTH OF GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH 

The history of Grace Baptist Church will some day be 
written in a book of many hundred pages. As our present 
purpose is to speak especially of its pastor, of those forces 
which have made him what he is ; to acquaint the reader 
with the methods he uses and the results he has accom- 
plished, we cannot devote as much space to this special 
subject as we should like. The church is in many par- 
ticulars similar to other churches which are progressive, 
consecrated, and united. It will be most helpful to the 
reader if we speak of those particulars in which Grace 
Church differs from other churches. These differences 
will not be found in belief nor in ultimate purpose, but in 
method. Let it be clearly apprehended that the primal 
purpose to which all means are adjusted, in the thought 
both of Mr. Conwell and of his people, is to do the 
will of God. Moody once asked Spurgeon to preach in 
East London, saying he would furnish him with an audi- 
ence of ten thousand people. Spurgeon, in declining the 
invitation, said : " I am not ciger to preach to ten thousand 
people, but to do the will of God." Conwell is animated 
by the same motive. The dominating purpose which 
prompts the introduction of every new method in church 
work is seen in Mr. ConweH's own statement of the mis- 
sion of the church : 



184 Russell H. Conwell 

" The mission of the church is to save the souls of men. 
That is its true mission. It is the only mission of the church. 
That should be its only thought. The moment any church ad- 
mits a singer who does not sing to save souls; the moment a 
church calls a pastor who does not preach to save souls; the 
moment a church elects a deacon who does not work to save 
souls; the moment a church gives a supper or an entertain- 
ment of any kind not for the purpose of saving souls, — it 
ceases in so much to be a church and to fulfil the magnificent 
mission God gave to it. Every concert, every choir service, 
every preaching service, every Lord's supper, every agency 
that is used in the church must have the great mission plainly 
before his eye. We are here to save the souls of dying sin- 
ners; we are here for no other purpose; and the mission of the 
church being so clear, that is the only test of a real church." 

Grace Church is conspicuous in — first, the means used 
to win the world; second, the means used to promote 
sociability among its members ; third, the means used to 
raise money; fourth, the means used to enlist an enthusi- 
astic devotion to their church home. 

Mr. Conwell is a genius for bringing things to pass, and 
accomplishes three or four ends by the use of each means. 
The outsiders are reached, money raised, sociability pro- 
moted, and character developed by the same means ; hence 
a minute analysis is wellnigh impossible. An enter- 
prise like a giant church fair brings the outsider to The 
Temple. He receives a warm welcome and sees how 
happy Christian people can be together. He is not 
charged an exorbitant price for what he buys, but is 
heartily thanked for the money he pays for every pur- 
chase. Perhaps he attends one of the many prayer-meet- 
ings in session during the fair. Hundreds have been 
converted at The Temple during the fairs, more than dur- 
ing special revival seasons. And yet, if the visitor saw 



1 86 Russell H. Conwell 

gambling of any kind, was charged two prices for what he 
bought, or was treated as an intruder, he would leave in 
disgust, and be farther from the Kingdom than when he 
entered. It requires a high order of Christianity to run a 
church fair successfully, because it brings Christians into 
the light. The church meets the world in its working 
clothes, and in the church home circle. Many churches 
could never hold a fair to the glory of God, because their 
Christianity needs its Sunday clothes and kid gloves in 
order to appear to good advantage. But where there is 
enough of the Spirit of Christ to fill a church with anti- 
septic Christians, a fair affords a splendid opportunity to 
meet, convict, and win those who have no experimental 
knowledge of Christ : to live in helpful contact with the 
sinful world, thus rebuking the Pharisees, the Essenes, 
and even the disciples of John the Baptist. " But," says 
the modern Pharisee, "Jesus said that his disciples dis- 
regarded pharisaical customs because he, the Bridegroom, 
was with them. Now, the Bridegroom has been taken 
away." Has he? He said : " Lo, I am with you all the 
days, even to the completion of the age. " 

Mrs. Agnes Conwell Barker, in a recent article in " Our 
Day," describes the method and result of the fairs which 
have so signally blessed Grace Church. She says : 

" The members of the various committees solicit donations 
of goods and money among their unconverted friends. If they 
are successful, the chances are that, before long, the friend 
who has given will be one of us in the church. First they 
come to see what they have given, then they must know what 
is to be done with it, and, finally, feeling what a good work it 
is, join it and begin to solicit in their turn. At one of our re- 
cent fairs 303 persons were brought to Christ in this way. At 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 187 

the fair we have just held we cannot, as yet, say the num- 
ber converted, but they are coming into the church all the 
time. 

"When a donation has been obtained the name of the giver 
is handed to a member of a committee selected to acknowl- 
edge gifts. This member either calls or writes to him or her, 
thanking him for the gift, and urging him to come and see the 
fair. If the givers do come, they are spoken to by the com- 
mittee organized for that purpose, shown the various attrac- 
tions, introduced to the pastor if possible, and to the various 
workers. They are made to feel at home, and that their gifts 
were appreciated. Of course, they give to the next fair, if they 
are not soliciting donations themselves. 

"We invariably begin the enterprise with a prayer-meeting. 
The first gathering together of the committees is for prayer 
In this way the members are impressed with the fact that the 
fair is held for the conversion of souls, and not merely for the 
getting of money. Every member of the church is on a com- 
mittee, including the pastors, deacons, and other church offi- 
cers. Early in the summer these committees are selected, so 
that by fall every one will know exactly what they are to do 
and have plenty of time to do it in. 

"Each committee has its regular meeting night each week, 
which is opened with prayer. The meetings are used not only 
to transact the necessary business, but to bring the people to- 
gether in greater social and religious activity and interest. At 
our recent fair we held a prayer-meeting each night before the 
time for opening. They were largely, attended both by the 
members and outsiders, many being curious to know how we 
could hold a prayer-meeting and fair at the same time. 

" This large attendance showed why the people were at work. 
After this meeting each member went to his table with the de- 
sire to improve this great opportunity given of God for the 
doing of his work. 

"Why there should be so much said against church fairs I 
cannot understand. True, many churches have had divisions 
and quarrels on account of them, but they must have been car- 
ried on with money as their only object, not the converting 
of souls to Christ. Another thing which has caused no little 
comment is the prevalence of gambling in many church fairs. 



1 88 Russell H. Conwell 

Why churches, when it is breaking one of the principal laws, 
should encourage such a thing passes my comprehension ! 

"We disapprove no more of stealing than of gambling, and 
why we should encourage one without doing the same for the 
other is a puzzle. We might just as well put out a sign, with 
4 Elegant Chance to Steal. Success Guaranteed. All Wel- 
come! ' on it, as to organize a class in gambling, easy method 
object-lessons. 

"When the churches learn to avoid such devices for gaining 
money they will be able to carry on their fairs with less fear 
of doing harm to themselves and to the outside world. 

" The real object of one and all our fairs is to bring together 
the churchgoer and the non-churchgoer, so that they may be- 
come interested in each other, laying a foundation for the fu- 
ture good of the one and the strengthening of the religious 
fervor of the other. 

"Our fairs, in the past, have often netted from $7,000 to 
$9,000, and never less than $3,500." 

Preliminary to " The Carnival of the Centuries/' which 
put many thousand dollars into the treasury, and afforded 
an opportunity for leading many souls to Christ, Mr. Con- 
well, in the summer of 1896, from his summer home, 
Eagle's Nest, at South Worthington, Mass., sent out the 
following letter to every member of the church : 

" We are to have at The Temple and the Temple College the 
largest fair we ever held. The dates are to include ten days, 
from Thanksgiving Day (November 26th) to December 6th, as 
voted by the church. It will be the fourteenth (7 + 7) anni- 
versary of the present pastorate. The religious purpose is to 
consolidate our church by a more extensive and intimate ac- 
quaintance with each other, and enlarge the circle of social 
influence over those who have not accepted Christ. The finan- 
cial purpose is to clear the church from its floating debt of 
$20,000. 

"There will be twenty-one (7 + 7+7) committees, with one 
hundred members on each committee. 

" This enterprise being undertaken for the service of Christ, 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 189 

each church member is urged to enter it with earnest prayer, 
and to use every opportunity to direct the attention of workers 
and visitors to spiritual things. 

" Each committee should have its prayer circle or a special 
season set apart for devotional services. This carnival being 
undertaken for the spiritual good of the church, intimate 
friends and those who have hitherto worked together are espe- 
cially requested to separate on this occasion and work with 
new members, forming a new circle of acquaintances in the 
church. It will greatly strengthen the church, and each Chris- 
tian will need all the friends he can make. Any article of 
value should be accepted as an offering to the cause of God 
and purchased in the same spirit. 

"With this letter I send you a printed list of your commit- 
tee. Exchanges with persons on other committees can only be 
made by a vote of the Executive Committee. The chairmen 
of all the committees will form the Executive Committee. 
Each committee will be called together at once by the chair- 
man, at The Temple or some home, and organized with its 
various sub-committees as if it were conducting a fair of its 
own. 

" Information about customs, costumes, and regulations will 
be furnished by the Executive Committee. 

" Each committee can fill vacancies in its own number of 
one hundred from the members of the church who have not 
been assigned or accidentally omitted from the lists. 

" Do not seek for a different place unless it is clear that you 
can do much more in another position, for they honor God 
most who take up his work right where they are and do faith- 
fully the duty nearest them. 

" Your pastor prays earnestly that this season of work, offer- 
ing, and pleasure may be used by the Lord to help humanity 
and add to the glory of his Kingdom on earth. 

" Russell H. Conwell." 

At another time he wrote : " The true object of a church 
fair should be to strengthen the church, to propagate the 
Gospel, and to bring the world nearer to its God. Un- 
fortunately this main object is generally lost sight of in 



190 



Russell H. Conwell 



the endeavor to secure an immediate financial gain." If 
the workers should lose sight of the object for which they 
are working, and become lost in the meshes of fairs and 




GEORGE A. PELTZ, D.D. , ASSOCIATE PASTOR 



entertainments for money only, The Temple would be 
doomed. It is a vision of the exalted Christ which makes 
menial service sacred at The Temple. Of the influence 
of one lady, who redeemed the time while assisting at a 
fair, it was said at her funeral by her pastor (not a Bap- 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 191 

tist) : " She worked for one of the annual fairs at The 
Temple, and had such an influence as a worker that peo- 
ple were always glad to labor with her. As a consequence 
of it, every one of those workers is a member of the church 
to-day." 

At The Temple the church furnishes the very best 
lectures, concerts, and entertainments that can be secured, 
and for a nominal admission fee. They believe in having 
in their church home that which is pure, educating, and 
inspiring, with the most refined surroundings. , They do 
not turn their young people over to the devil for their 
amusements, but proceed on the theory that if an enter- 
tainment is pure and helpful the church should use it for 
a good purpose. If, on the other hand, it is too secular 
for the church building, it is too secular for a Christian to 
patronize anywhere. The lectures and concerts afford 
opportunities for the poor people who, feeling that they 
can give but little, have a delicacy about putting their 
mite into an envelope, yet they can pay twenty-five cents 
for a ticket. The Templars find that this cultivates be- 
nevolence, and, experiencing the joy of giving a little, 
many find themselves able to give much more than they 
had ever supposed they could, and become regular con- 
tributors through the envelope system. With a strong 
desire to give, many hundred people at The Temple have 
cut down useless expenditure ; kept an exact account of 
expenses; put aside one-tenth for the Lord; thus educat- 
ing themselves into exact methods and laying the founda- 
tion for a comfortable fortune for themselves. 

Aside from all fairs, lectures, suppers, concerts, or other 
means of raising money, the Templars are a noble band 



192 



Russell H. Conwell 



of givers. They are trained to give regularly and system- 
atically, and know the joy of giving. The pastor gives a 
part of his salary largely in church work, himself expend- 
ing it where most needed, but his lecture fees usually go 
for educating poor students. Mr. Conwell is in the 
world's financial rating a poor man. 

Grace Baptist Church has raised the following amounts 
of money for local work : 



1872 $1,500.00 

1873 10,021.45 

^74 9 5 9SS- 2 5 

^75 5,59°-°7 

1876 2,234.86 

1877 2,516.91 

1878 2,413.54 

1879 1,781.08 

1880 3?°54-3 I 

1881 3,818.56 

1882 10,556.64 

1883 29,321.76 

1884 10,937.01 

1885 11,881.14 



1886 $16,286.64 

1887 ; 23,080.29 

1888 26,121.36 

*88 9 35.771-5° 

1890 98,470.13 

1891 102,978.59 

^92 75,620.34 

l8 93 95> 2 7°- I 5 

l8 94 58.243-53 

^95 67,520.38 

1896 61,551.16 

1897 46,610.79 

1898 46,920.59 

1899 40,351.71 



During the ten and one-half years previous to Mr. Con- 
well's pastorate Grace Church raised $53,442.67. During 
the seventeen years of Mr. Conwell's leadership Grace 
Church has raised $847,937.07. 

The marvel is that they can keep the amount so high 
during so many successive years. The various objects to 
which the church contributed during the associational 
year ending with September, 1899, were: 

$1,780.40 to the Sunday-school. 
29,903.47 to current expenses. 
1,163.00 to the poor. 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 193 

$270.00 to the Baptist Home. 

53.12 to the Orphanage. 
2,354.10 to ministerial education. 

353.12 to city missions. 

246.89 to state missions. 

197.86 to home missions. 

285.23 to foreign missions. 
3,437.24 to miscellaneous objects. 

This does not include the large subscriptions to the 
College Hospital and Orphanage. 

For such noble sacrifice, such unselfish service in the 
cause of humanity, the pastor and his people are some- 
times treated to expressions of appreciation from visitors 
such as the following : " I was in your church this morn- 
ing and came to hear the Gospel ; but the whole service 
was destroyed by the passing of that everlasting contribu- 
tion box. People don't go to church to have a deacon 
tease them for money by pushing a contribution box under 
their noses twice at the same service." 

Despite the occasional crank, the church has been made 
happy in knowing that their Christian hospitality has been 
a benediction to thousands of visitors who have blessed 
God and taken courage after a Sunday at The Temple. 
Every member has some specific work to do. The indi- 
vidual is not lost in the multitude, unless he chooses to be 
a drone. A spirit of love, joy, and consecration pervades 
the whole membership. They do not scratch the frost off 
the window-panes; they heat up the room and the frost 
melts. Few, if any, have left The Temple in consequence 
of the heavy burdens to be carried, and all are plainly told 
that if they feel they can do more good in some other church 
or denomination to go at once ; or if some other field pre- 



194 Russell H. Conwell 

sents greater opportunities for religious work, to go there 
and repent of the lost time. The membership will never 
lack for opportunity to work while Russell H. Conwell lives. 

It is not the ideal of the church just to catch the spirit 
of the age and keep level with it. It is the mission of 
the church to persuade the world to accept the Savior and 
his standards of living, which will give them a divine dis- 
content with everything that is evil and send them against 
the spirit of the age. Nevertheless there are some par- 
ticulars in which the children of the world are still wiser 
than the children of light; and one of these is in securing 
the natural advantage which results from healthful com- 
binations. That beneficent tendency which has been 
manifest in the formation of great national units during 
the whole of the nineteenth century has extended to in- 
dustrial units in these last years of the century, and must 
come to the rescue of the divided hosts of the Lord during 
the early years of the twentieth century. This century 
has witnessed the creation of the German Empire; the 
union of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia ; the unification 
of Italy; and the expansion of Russia and of the United 
States. The blessings of peace and unrestricted trade are 
too great to admit of the probability of there being any 
great future for small nations. The principle of indi- 
vidualism has gone too far in the maintenance of large 
numbers of small, struggling churches. With the chaff 
of personal whims and petty strifes Satan has sifted much 
of the wheat out of the church. The large church is to 
be welcomed. Grace Church is doing pioneer work in 
the direction toward which the signs of the times point. 

In antiquity religion was an affair of the community 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 195 

rather than of the individual. The ordinary type of He- 
brew worship was essentially social. God appointed many 
annual feasts for the Jews. The great assemblies of the 
Jews made them more patriotic toward their nation and 
more enthusiastic in their service of Jehovah. In the far 
reverberation of the great feasts a common emotion lifted 
the people to a common consciousness of their Maker. 
Religious conventions are a great factor in binding to- 
gether Christians from many parts of a common country. 
Why should not the individual church receive the im- 
pulse to more unselfish service and the practical lessons 
of united endeavor which result from bringing hundreds of 
people together in the unity of the faith and the bond of 
peace? Grace Church observes many social and semi- 
religious occasions. The pastor's birthday ; the anniver- 
sary of his pastorate; receptions on his return from ex- 
tended periods of absence; receptions to distinguished 
visitors; Mr. Conwell's reception to the children on 
Thanksgiving afternoon; in addition to an informal hand- 
shaking and introduction of strangers after every preach- 
ing service, prayer-meeting, lecture, or supper — all afford 
delightful social occasions in which the vast hosts come 
to know each other. 

Everything is made attractive — preaching, singing, 
giving, baptism, welcome of new members, sacrifice for 
the cause of God and man. Every service is made an 
occasion to show how blessed it is to be a co-worker with 
God in dispensing blessings and bearing each other's bur- 
dens. There are no uncomfortable pews, scowling faces, 
long-drawn prayers ; no unnecessary heaviness of thought, 
rasping tones, nor bitter denunciations greet the worship- 



196 Russell H. Conwell 

ers in his sanctuary. The baptisms in the baptistery, 
which extends in circular form around the entire front of 
the pulpit, are beautiful and sacred beyond description. 
To appreciate it one must sit in that splendid audience ; 
hear the pleading of the great organ under the master 
touch of the blind organist, Professor Wood; hear the 
low murmur of the cascade which glides down the slate 
steps in the center of the choir elevation directly behind 
the pulpit ; see the potted plants around the baptistery ; the 
white roses kissing the baptismal waters and waiting to 
go to the candidate's home, and be pressed in his Bible, 
as a sweet reminder of his baptism. Look to the right 
side of the pulpit ; see the white-robed believers emerging 
from the rear and being gently assisted down the steps 
into the liquid grave; see the strong under- shepherd take 
the candidate tenderly by the hand and lead him to the 
center of the baptistery; hear him say, " Joseph, do you 
believe in Christ who lived and suffered and died that you 
might be saved?" Hear the confident answer, "I do." 
" Then if thou believest that, thou hast everlasting life. 
This baptism is the outward expression of an inward faith. 
I shall meet you in heaven. And while we do not be- 
lieve the baptism saves us, we do want to follow Christ, 
and be like him. On the profession of your faith and in 
obdience to the command of my Master, I gladly baptize 
you into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost. Amen." Hear the choir sing, " Jesus, lover of my 
soul," as the believer is " buried with Christ by baptism 
into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
newness of life." 



The Growth of Grace Baptist Church 197 

He leaves the baptistery at the opposite side from which 
he entered, and the pastor turns for the next. An entire 
family, father, mother, and a sweet-faced daughter of nine 
years, all enter the baptistery. The father carries the 
child on his arm. They move to the center of the baptist- 
ery, directly in front of the center aisle. The father hands 
the child to the mother and is baptized first. Oh, holy 
emotion, as he is buried in Christ in the presence of his 
wife and child ! He is raised to a newness of life. He 
stands a little to your right. Mr. Conwell takes' the child 
from her mother's arm. Her white robes fall over his 
arm. Her golden hair glistens in the somber light. Her 
blue eyes reflect a light of angelic purity. He buries her 
beneath the mirror-like surface, He raises her from the 
water. Hear the choir : 

" Hide me, O my Savior, hide, 
Till the storm of life is passed/' 

Her head rests on his bosom. Her arms are around his 
neck. He kisses the sweet-faced darling and hands her to 
her father. The audience is in tears. And then the mother. 
The pastor takes her two hands in his left hand and supports 
her shoulders with his right. He puts the usual question 
and makes a touching reference to the unity of their family 
in the new life. Oh, that face ! The greatest artists have 
tried to paint that expression in the faces of their Madon- 
nas. Beneath the sacred wave she is gently lowered until 
the water covers her completely. She is " raised again." 
The pastor escorts the happy family to the opposite side 
and they disappear. Heaven is nearer than when we 
entered the church. 



198 Russell H. Conwell 

" Unheard, because our ears are dull, 
Unseen, because our eyes are dim, 
He walks the earth, the Wonderful, 
And all great deeds are done by him." 

The service is over. Ninety candidates have been 
baptized. (At one service there were one hundred and 
seventy-seven.) Mr. Conwell raises his hand. The au- 
dience stands. He lifts his hands for the benediction. In 
three sentences he unifies the thought of the morning, ex- 
presses the emotion of the hour, and asks the benediction 
of the Father's love, mercy, and peace upon all who have 
been in his house that morning. Oh, that final "Amen" ! 
It resounds through the great Temple. No man ever 
pronounced a benediction like Conwell. His "Amen " is 
more convincing than a library on apologetics; surcharged 
with earnestness, hallowed by love, and animated by faith 
in "him who loved us and gave himself for us." That 
"Amen" strikes a chord which sets flowing the pent-up 
emotions of men's hearts and minds. When shall we see 
his like again? When shall that chord be struck again? 

" It may be that death's bright angel 
Will speak in that chord again. 
It may be that only in heaven 
I shall hear that grand, Amen." 



CHAPTER XVII 

TEMPLE COLLEGE 

That a university like Strasburg should come into 
existence by an imperial decree, appropriating money 
raised by common taxation, is nothing unusual- That a 
university like that of Chicago should receive millions for 
endowment from a benevolent millionaire, and, drawing to 
its faculty the best teaching ability to be found anywhere 
in the world, should grow to enormous proportions, is what 
we would expect in an age of education, organization, and 
splendid achievement. That a university like Harvard 
should attain its present standing in a city of culture near 
"the Hub of the Universe," through the gifts, lives, and 
voluntary services of all classes of people, learned and 
simple, rich and poor, is certainly a triumph of democracy 
of which we are justly proud, and which speaks eloquently 
of the pent-up possibilities of our free institutions. But 
in Philadelphia is to be found an institution whose pro- 
portions and purpose are still more reassuring than any 
here mentioned. The Temple College has shown that 
the common people, horny-handed working people, aspir- 
ing young men and women whose bread is earned behind 
counter or desk, led by a poor preacher of the Gospel, can 
build a great institution of learning without imperial de- 
cree, endowment of millionaire, or environment of unusual 
culture. 




H 



i p 




i 











Temple College 201 

The stability of our nation depends upon the intrinsic 
worth, the morality, comforts, and happiness of the masses 
of the people, and not upon the overgrown fortunes of the 
few. Abraham Lincoln said, " God must love the com- 
mon people or he would not have made so many of them. " 
A well-known political economist declares that the ulti- 
mate danger to free institutions does not lie in the unequal 
distribution of wealth, but in that of culture. All social 
reform must begin its work here, and must regard it as its 
first duty to raise the standard of life among the lower 
classes. The world will probably never see a greater 
mind than Shakespeare, a greater soldier than Napoleon, a 
greater philosopher than Bacon, or a greater man in all 
vocations than Caesar ; but the great masses of the com- 
mon people are being uplifted to positions of education, 
freedom, dignity, and efficiency higher than was ever 
thought possible centuries ago. The history of the world 
is a biography of comparatively a few men ; but with the 
advent of Christ new purposes were launched upon the 
world, a new motive infused into the heart of humanity 
— "The common people heard him gladly." The com- 
mon people were chosen as apostles, and the fact that 
God intended his blessings for the Gentiles and the world 
begins to dawn upon the minds of those who have been 
commissioned to declare the good news to every creature. 

Christianity was born with an irresistible impulse to 
impregnate the meanest soul w r ith its life and power. The 
Church is the organ of Christianity, and education is the 
handmaid of the Church. When Conwell entered the 
ministry he did not accept the axiom, " Whatever is, is 
right." He knew from his Bible, from experience and 



202 Russell H. Conwell 

observation, that a great deal that is, is wrong. He saw 
that only the man of culture could be the highest type of 
Christian, and only the Christian could be the true man 
of culture. He realized the necessity of the individual 
being capable of finding his way amidst conflicting ideas, 
and that if a man is to honor his Maker in that place ap- 
pointed him by Providence, at the head of all creation, he 
must be stimulated to an equitable and harmonious devel- 
opment of all his powers. 

The Bostonians have inscribed on one side of their 
magnificent public library, " The commonwealth requires 
the education of the people as the safeguard of order and 
liberty.'' Conwell has accepted as his appointed work — 
to assist the masses to a higher standard of virtue, capacity, 
and privilege. Not to pose as a transcendent genius on 
the dizzy heights of fame, but to uplift the masses of hu- 
manity to that position in which they may make the most 
out of life and enjoy their share of the great Father's 
possessions, is the end for which he lives. Now that the 
laborer is no longer a slave or a serf, but a free man ; now 
that political economy is animated by an ethical ideal ; 
now that the supreme question which engages public at- 
tention is not religious belief, as in the seventeenth cen- 
tury; not philosophy, as in the eighteenth century; nor 
natural science, as in the first two -thirds of the nineteenth 
century, but social science, there is an imperative need 
for such institutions as the Temple College. 

Its purpose, as announced in its first catalogue, issued 
in 1887, is: "To open to the burdened and circumscribed 
manual laborer the doors through which he may if he will 
reach the fields of profitable and influential professional life. 



Temple College 203 

"To enable the working man, whose labor has been 
largely with his muscles, to double his skill through the 
helpful suggestions of a cultivated mind. 

" To provide such instruction as shall be best adapted 
to the higher education of those who are compelled to 
labor at their trades while engaged in study, or who desire 
while studying to remain under the influence of their 
home or church. 

"To awaken in the character of young laboring men 
and women a strong and determined ambition to' be useful 
to their fellow-men. 

" To cultivate such a taste for the higher and most use- 
ful branches of learning as shall compel the students, after 
they have left the college, to continue to pursue the best 
and most practical branches of learning to the very high- 
est walks of mental and scientific achievement. " 

How deeply this work of reaching out to the worthy 
boys and girls in the less favored ranks of society was 
laid upon the heart of Mr. Conwell, may be seen in two 
quotations from his public utterances to his church : " For 
seven years [1893] I have felt a firm conviction that the 
great work, the special duty of our church, is to establish 
the College. We are now face to face with it. How 
distinctly we have been led of God to this point ! " " Never 
before in the history of this nation have a people had com- 
mitted to them a movement more important for the wel- 
fare of mankind than that which is now committed to your 
trust in connection with the permanent establishment of 
Temple College. We step now over the brink. Our feet 
are already in the water, and God says, ' Go on, it shall be 
dryshod for you yet ' ; and I say that the success of this 



204 Russell H. Conwell 

institution means others like it in every town of five thou- 
sand inhabitants in the United States." 

The patriotic youth who left his college walls and a 
college education behind, and, perceiving with Lincoln 
that "This nation cannot exist half slave and half free," 
buckled on his sword and threw himself between rebel 
bullets and his nation's life, deserves all the honor a 
grateful nation has bestowed. But he who under changed 
conditions turned a trained eye upon the signs of the 
times, and saw in the ever-widening gap between classes 
and masses a great peril to the nation, and impelled by 
more enlightened patriotism hurled himself into the abyss 
in order that by self-annihilation he might help to close 
the gulf, is a patriot whose name will ever be dear to the 
lovers of free institutions. The Almighty seems to have 
treasured up in the hearts of the ignorant and despised 
multitude great moral resources and reserve forces which 
are called into action only in times of crying needs or 
national crises. The manhood which may prove itself 
most worthy of the name may come from the mines, farms, 
or workshops of the poor. Such has been the history of 
the past. 

" One thing," says Mr. Conwell, " we have demonstrated 
— those who work for a living have time to study. Some 
splendid specimens of scholarship have been developed in 
our work. And there are others, splendid geniuses, yet 
undiscovered, but Temple College will bring them to the 
light, and the world will be the richer for it. By the use of 
spare hours — hours usually running to waste — great things 
can be done. The commendation of these successful 
students will do more for the college than any number of 



Temple College 205 

rich friends can do. It will make friends ; it will bring 
money; it will win honor; it will secure success." 

What need there is of leadership in this age ! How 
many people there are in the world, especially young peo- 
ple in the formative period, who drift about. Look at the 
crowd coming out from a variety show, aimless, purposeless. 
The great need of the age is some one man, or thousands of 
men, to set in motion the latent forces lying dormant in the 
breasts of these millions, and to put within their financial, 
social, and intellectual reach opportunities for betterment. 

The Temple College had a very humble beginning in 
1884, when two young men, members of Grace Baptist 
Church, felt themselves called to preach the Gospel, but 
had neither education, nor money, nor even time during 
the day for study. They asked Mr. Con well's advice, and 
were encouraged to begin at once, using their evenings 
and spare moments. He volunteered to teach them him- 
self. The first night there were seven in the class, and 
the second night forty. Other teachers were soon secured, 
who gave their services free of charge, and the basement 
of the church, then at Berks and Mervine streets, was 
used as classrooms. The first catalogue was issued in 
1887, and the institution chartered in 1888, at which time 
there were five hundred and ninety students. The College 
overflowed the basement of the church into two adjoining 
houses. When The Temple was completed the College 
occupied the whole building. When that was filled it 
moved into two large houses on Park Avenue. Still 
growing, it rented two large halls, and was finally com- 
pelled to build. It was a great undertaking, and called 
for a yet deeper consecration on the part of the member- 



206 Russell H. Conwell 

ship of Grace Church, on whom the greater part of the 
burden must fall. An investment fund was created. The 
first contribution came from the Young Men's Bible Class; 
a noble boy brought the pastor a fifty-cent piece, the first 
money he had ever earned ; a lady gave a gold ring. " She 
hath done what she could." All kinds of gifts poured 
into the treasury, including a great quantity of jewelry. 
A business man said, " If a day is appointed, I will on 
that day give to the College all the gold and silver that 
come into my store for purchases." Others followed his 
example. All organizations of Grace Church contributed 
time, money, work, and prayer. By 1893 the College en- 
rolled two thousand students. The corner-stone for a 
new building adjoining The Temple was laid on Saturday 
afternoon, August 19th, 1893, at which service President 
Conwell spoke as follows : " Friends, to-day we do some- 
thing more than simply lay the corner-stone of a college 
building. We do an act here very simply that shows to 
the world, and will go on testifying after we shall have 
gone to our long rest, that the church of Jesus Christ is 
not only an institution of theory, but an institution of 
practice. It will stand here upon this great and broad 
street and say through the coming years to all passersby, 
' Christianity means something for the good of humanity; 
Christianity means not only a belief in things that are 
good and pure and righteous, but it also means an activity 
that shall bless those who need the assistance of others.' 
It shall say to the rich man, ' Give thou of thy surplus to 
those who have not. ' It shall say to the poor man, ' Make 
thou the most of thy opportunities and thou shalt be the 
equal of the rich. ' " 



Temple College 207 

Steadily, self-sacrificingly, and uninterruptedly the poor 
people pressed on, and when the new building was dedi- 
cated, in May, 1894, President Conwell receiving the keys 
from architect Lonsdale could say : " By united effort, 
penny by penny and dollar by dollar, every note has been 
paid, every financial obligation met. It is a demonstration 
of what people can do when thoroughly in earnest in a 
great enterprise.' ' 

Four thousand two hundred students were enrolled that 
fall, and four academies started in different parts of the 
city which were attended by two thousand others. The 
academies were subsequently discontinued for lack of 
funds, but their practicability was demonstrated and they 
will be resumed at some more auspicious day. 

Says Rev. F. E. Dager, D.D., " That the Temple Col- 
lege idea of educating working men and working women 
at an expense just sufficient to give them an appreciation 
of the work of the institution covers a wide and long- 
neglected field of educational effort, is at once apparent to 
a thoughtful mind. Remembering that out of the total 
enrolment in the schools of our land of all grades, public 
and private, of 14,512,778 pupils, ninety-six and one-half 
per cent are reported as receiving elementary instruction 
only; that not more than thirty-five in a thousand attend 
school after they are fourteen years of age ; that twenty- 
five of these drop out during the next four years of their 
life; that less than ten in one thousand pass out to en- 
joy the superior instruction of a college or some equivalent 
grade of work, we begin to see the unlimited field before 
an institution like this. Thousands upon thousands of 
those who have left school quite early in life, either be- 



208 Russell H. Conwell 

cause they did not appreciate the advantages of a liberal 
education or because the stress of circumstances compelled 
them to assist in the maintenance at home, awake a few 
years later to the realization that a good education is more 
than one-half the struggle for existence and position. 
Their time through the day is fully occupied; their even- 
ings are free. At once they turn to the evening college. 
And grasping the opportunities for instruction, convert 
those hours, which to many are the pathway to vice and 
ruin, into stepping-stones to a higher and more useful 
career." 

Temple College has demonstrated the practicability of 
such institutions, and the fact that thousands of young 
men and women who find that they have made a mistake 
in not getting a better education, or who have been hin- 
dered by adverse -circumstances, will and do gratefullv 
appreciate an opportunity to better equip themselves for 
life's battles. The College affords, first, an opportunity 
for any young man or woman, of whatever age or religion, 
to begin at any grade and prepare for entrance examina- 
tion to any class or any institution of learning. It began 
with the idea of a free education to any deserving person ; 
but experience taught the advisability of charging a 
nominal fee of five dollars in order that the deserving be 
not hindered by the worthless. After the College was 
well on its feet a day department w r as added, and attracts 
a very fine class of students. The tuition in this depart- 
ment is fifty dollars. The College is self-supporting; but 
has a heavy debt on its building, which it is hoped will 
be lifted at an early date. 

The number of students instructed at Temple College 



Temple College 209 

in proportion to money expended and buildings used is al- 
together out of proportion to any other college in America : 
one building and over eight thousand students. Some 
idea of the breadth of study presented at Temple College 
may be had from a comparison with Harvard. Harvard 
has four thousand students, four hundred instructors, and 
presents five hundred courses of study. Its growth since 
i860 has been truly wonderful. In i860, while one man 
might not have been able in four years to master all the 
subjects offered, yet he could have done so in six. It 
was estimated in 1899 that the courses of study offered 
were so varied that sixty years would have been required. 
It would take one student ninety- six years to take all the 
courses presented by the Temple College. 

The reader will be interested in a little more definite 
information respecting the courses of study which Temple 
College offers to the working men and women of Phila- 
delphia. 

University Grade. 

The Philadelphia Law School (LL.B.). 

The Philadelphia Theological School (B.D.). 

Post-Graduate Courses (M.A., M.S., and Ph.D.). 

Full College Grade. 

Course in Arts (B.A.). 

Course in Science (B.S.). 

Course in Business, four years (B.S.). 

Course in Music (B.M. and Mus. Doc.) 

Preparatory Grade. 

College Preparatory Course. 
Medical Preparatory Course. 
Scientific Preparatory Course. 
Law Preparatory Course. 



21 o Russell H. Conwell 

Business Grade. 

Amanuensis Course. 
Bookkeeping Course. 
Proof-reader's Course. 
Stenography Course. 
Telegraphy Course. 

Normal Grade. 

Normal Course for Kindergartners. 
Normal Course for Elementary Teachers. 
Normal Course in Household Science. 
Normal Course in Physical Training. 
Normal Course in Music. 
Normal Course in Millinery. 
Normal Course in Dressmaking. 

Elementary Grade. 

Grammar Schools. 
Primary Schools. 
Kindergarten Schools. 

Special Courses. 

Painting, Drawing, Physical Training, Metal Workers, 
Electrical Artisans. 

Domestic Science. 

Dressmaking, Millinery, Cookery, Embroidery, School for 
Nurses (with Samaritan Hospital). 

The Temple College idea presents the most practical 
means for reaching the submerged element in the slums. 
The College Settlement has never been a great success 
because there was too great a social gap between the ele- 
ment to be reached and the class of educated and refined 
persons who live in college settlements. The Temple 
College begins with the educated and substantial, and 



Temple College 211 

reaches down to the lowest without any very broad de- 
markation. 

It is apparent on a moment's reflection that an institu- 
tion like Temple College will do much for the purification 
of politics. It is leaven in the impure lump of our civic 
life. It educates citizens. It goes to the root of the evil. 
It turns out all-round men. It molds character. We 
get a glimpse of its possibilities in a circular letter sent 
to the former students of Temple College by President 
Con well pending the fall elections of 1894. 

"Fraternal Gretti?igs : The near approach of an important 
election leads me to suggest to you the following: 

" First. There being now in this city over seven thousand 
voters who have been students in the Temple College, you 
have by your votes and your influence, either by combination 
or as individuals, a considerable political power. You should 
use it for the good of your city, state, and nation. 

" Second. In city affairs I urge you to think first of the 
poor. The rich do not need your care. Vote only for such 
city candidates as will most speedily secure for the more needy 
classes pure water, clean streets, cheaper homes, cheaper, and 
more useful education, healthier environment, cheap and quick 
transportation, the development of the labor-giving improve- 
ments, and the increase of sea-going and inland commerce. 
Select large-hearted, cool-headed men for city officers, regard- 
less of national parties. 

" Third. Let no man or party purchase your patriotic birth- 
right for a fifty-cent tax bill or any other sum. 

" Fourth. In selecting your candidates for state offices re- 
member the needs of the people. Favor the granting to the 
submerged poor a more favorable opportunity to help them- 
selves. Move in the most reasonable and direct way toward 
the ultimate abolition of the sale of intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage, and for the increase of hospital and college privi- 
leges for the afflicted and the ignorant. 

"Fifth. In national politics, remember that both parties 



212 Russell H. Conwell 

have a measure of truth in their principles, and the need of 
the time is noble, conscientious lovers of humanity, who will 
not be led by party enthusiasm into any wild schemes in either 
direction which would result in the destruction of business and 
the degradation of national honor. Think independently, vote 
considerately, stand unflinchingly against any measure that is 
wrong, and vigorously in favor of every movement that is right. 
This is an opportunity to do a great, good deed. Quit you 
like men. With endearing affection, 

" Russell H. Conwell." 



^ 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SAMARITAN HOSPITAL 

In contemplating the work accomplished by Russell H. 
Conwell and endeavoring to profit by his experiences, the 
sincere student will be greatly assisted to a correct idea if 
he will bear in mind two important facts. First, that 
Mr. Conwell keeps his eye single to the supreme needs of 
the people, and follows closely the providential leading 
in endeavoring to supply a need. He knows that the 
methods which succeed are always those that work in ac- 
cordance with the great plan of God. There is all the 
difference in the world between filling a deeply felt want, 
and endeavoring to get up something for which there is 
no desire on the part of the people, and which will have 
to be supported by work laboriously performed and money 
grudgingly given. Conwell knows that there is a plan in 
the mind of God for each human life. He knows that 
Christ has undertaken to bind the lost and depraved race 
back to God ; that the very word religion means to bind 
back. He knows he is called to be a co-worker with God 
in applying the Gospel to the world's needs. Hence he 
presents such truth, fathers such enterprises, and advo- 
cates the construction of such buildings as the proper 
prosecution of the work demands. When the teaching of 
Scripture, the impulse of the heart, and circumstances 
agree, it is safe to say, " The voice of the Lord hath in- 



214 Russell H. Conwell 

deed spoken." Then it is safe to proceed, believing that 
the Father's blessing will rest upon an enterprise so un- 
selfishly undertaken. Such a warrant for action appeals 
to the judgment of sound business men and insures sup- 
port. Thus there is begotten a confidence which makes 
faith wellnigh invincible, and lends a new zeal to the 
prosecution of Christian work. Secondly, Mr. Conwell 
has been a close observer of men and methods for years. 
A sympathetic heart and many bitter personal experiences 
prompted him to undertake many kinds of Christian 
work at a time when he could study ways and means from 
the standpoint of a lawyer. His journalistic work brought 
him in touch with all kinds of people in all parts of the 
world. He thus brought to the ministry the result of 
many years' experience and observation. He is giving 
out what he spent years in gathering. The principles 
underlying many enterprises he has promoted were clearly 
discerned years ago, and his interest in Christian work 
before entering the ministry afforded abundant opportu- 
nity for experiment. Now he knows where to take hold, 
and foresees with wonderful power of discernment w r hat 
the people will support. As an illustration we here insert 
extracts from an address of Mr. Conwell's delivered in 
Music Hall, Boston, September 25th, 1874: 

" Charity is composed of sympathy and self-sacrifice, and 
there is no charity without a union of these two. To make a 
gift become a charity the recipient must feel that it is given 
out of sympathy; that the donor has made a sacrifice to give 
it; that it is intended only as assistance and not as a perma- 
nent support, unless the needy one be helpless; and that it is 
not given as his right. To accomplish this end desired by 
charitable hearts demands an acquaintance with the persons to 





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21 6 Russell H. Con well 

- be assisted or a study of them, and a great degree of caution 
and patience. It is not only unnecessary, but a positive wrong 
to give to itinerant beggars. There is no such thing as charity 
about a so-called state charity. It is statesmanship to rid the 
community of nuisances, to feed the poor and prevent steal- 
ing and robbery, but it should not be called a charity. The 
paupers take their provision as their right, feel no gratitude, 
acquire no ambition, no industry, no culture. The state alms- 
house school educates the brain and chills the heart. It 
fastens a stigma upon the child to hinder and curse it for life. 
Any institution supported otherwise than by voluntary con- 
tribution, or in the hands of paid public officials, can never 
have the spirit of charity nor be correctly called a charity. 
Boston's public charitable institutions, so called, are not char- 
ities at all ; the motive is not sympathy, but necessity. The 
money for the support of paupers is not paid with benevolent 
intentions by the tax-payers, nor do the inmates of almshouses 
so receive it. I have been engaged in gathering statistics, and 
have found sixty-three per cent of all persons who applied for 
assistance at the various institutions were impostors, while 
many were swindlers and professional burglars." 

The fundamental idea upon which Conwell proceeded 
when founding Samaritan Hospital was that healing the 
sick is distinctively Christian work; that just as light, 
heat, and electricity are believed to be but different 
modes of motion, so preaching the Gospel, teaching the 
ignorant, and healing the sick are different manifestations 
of pure religion. At Samaritan Hospital the sick are 
healed for Jesus' sake. President, trustees, board of lady- 
managers, physicians, nurses, and patrons read in their 
Bibles that " They brought unto him all the sick people 
that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and 
those which were possessed with devils, and those which 
were lunatics, and those that had the palsy, and he healed 
them. " Those who give to the support of Samaritan 



Samaritan Hospital 217 

Hospital are inspired by the same motives which prompted 
the women of the war — 

" Who walked through hospital streets, 

'Twixt white abodes of pain; 
Counting the last heart-beats 

Of men who were slowly slain: 
Whose deeds were so sweet and gracious, 

Wherever their light feet trod, 
That every step seemed precious, 

As if it were that of God." 

It is a "non- sectarian institution for the free relief of 
men, women, and children in suffering. " There are private 
rooms renting from $12 to $15 per week, which have been 
pronounced by many persons who have visited various 
other hospitals to be the most tastefully decorated and 
homelike rooms that can be found in such an institution 
in the city; but any sick or suffering one who is too poor 
to pay one cent is treated with the same tenderness and skill 
as a fifteen-dollar patient. Any one who is fully able to pay 
is required to do so. This enterprise is headed by an all- 
round man, is supported by all-round w r orkers, and is an 
all-round movement. It would be a great wrong to treat 
free those who are not in need of charity, and thus en- 
courage them in meanness while undermining the practice 
of honest physicians. Recognizing the great work which 
this hospital is doing in a portion of the city where rail- 
roads center, the state legislature in 1897 came to its sup- 
port. Unfortunately, however, in 1899 the appropriation 
bill for the good Samaritan was left lying on the roadside 
in the senate appropriations committee during the last 
session of the Pennsylvania legislature, while the political 



21 S Russell H. Conwell 

priests and party-faction Levites hurried down to Jericho 
to deliver an address on " How to Rid the Jerusalem Road 
of Robbers," and to inform their constituents by actions 
which spoke louder than words, " All we want is your votes 
and we leave all the rest to the people. " The poor, lame, 
blind, and maimed who plead for help at the doors of that 
hospital had no organized political bias and consequently 
could be of little use to scheming politicians. 

As this chapter is inserted with the hope that others 
may be helped to be good Samaritans, we give as much 
information as space will permit at first hand, in the fol- 
lowing articles from The True Philadelphian : 



"A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOSPITAL 



" BY WILLIAM FRANK HAEHNLKN, M.D. 

" Feeling confident of the imperative need of a hospital in the 
northern part of the city, Rev. Russell H. Conwell, together 
with a few friends who thought as he did, organized a board 
of trustees, elected a medical start, secured a house, and 
opened a hospital which they called the Samaritan. 

"After selecting what they considered a good site, they pur- 
chased on very easy terms the property now occupied by the 
hospital at Broad and Ontario streets. 

" Alterations were immediately made in the house, and the 
rooms fitted up for hospital purposes, into wards, operating- 
room, dispensary, etc. A head nurse and resident physician 
were installed, and the hospital opened on February ist. 1892. 

" The out-patient clinics were conducted in one of the down- 
stairs rooms, and were in charge of the attending medical orri« 
cers. They were held three times a week, at different hours, 
so as not to conflict with one another. 

" For the first six months the attending physicians and sur- 
geons could readily attend to their dispensaries besides their 



Samaritan Hospital 219 

service in the hospital wards, for at this time neither the house 
cases nor out-patients numbered very many. 

" Soon, however, the service grew larger, and not only were 
several new doctors added to the staff, but a distinct dispen- 
sary staff was elected. 

" At this early stage of the development of the hospital a com- 
mittee of ladies were appointed by the Board of Trustees to 
co-operate with them in the management of the institution. 

" In 1893 the hospital was incorporated, and a new Board of 
Trustees elected by the corporation. The original committee 
of ladies became by vote of the trustees a Board of Lady 
Managers, to whom the rapid and successful development of 
the Samaritan is in a great measure due. 

" The hospital had been supported entirely by voluntary con- 
tributions and through other amounts given in its behalf. No 
state aid nor large gifts of money were obtained until last 
year, when the legislature, recognizing the actual need of a 
hospital in that section of the city, appropriated $10,000 for 
maintenance for two years. For three years there was but one 
resident physician in the hospital, but after this the increased 
work required two residents. New nurses were installed, and 
a training-school then organized. Improvements in the build- 
ing were made from time to time, and in 1896 an extensive 
addition was made, comprising a large operating and an adjoin- 
ing etherizing room, sterilizing-room, maternity ward, gynae- 
cological ward, men's and women's medical and surgical ward, 
dispensary rooms, and a large general waiting-room, the new 
addition increasing the capacity from twenty to forty-three 
beds. 

il The operating-room was newly equipped with all the modern 
instruments, and surgical appliances and a complete steriliz- 
ing plant were procured by the ladies through the proceeds of 
one of their ' annual charity teas.' 

"The dispensary service, which was limited to three times a 
week during the early years of the hospital's existence, is now 
held daily at the same hour, in the different dispensary rooms 
built for the purpose, and the hospital presents a busy scene at 
twelve o'clock noon. 

"The hospital up to last year expended over 555,000 in im- 
provements and maintenance. 



220 Russell H. Conwell 

" To-day the hospital presents an entirely different appearance 
from what it did in the beginning, with its modern and well- 
equipped internal arrangements, telephone and ambulance 
service, laundry, new kitchen and dining-room, its different 
wards and private rooms so neatly and comfortably furnished, 
and the staff of nurses in their uniform of pink and w r hite. 

"Over 15,000 patients were treated in the hospital since its 
beginning, and over 60,000 visits have been paid to its dis- 
pensaries, and thousands of operations have been performed. 
Many of the worst accident cases in Philadelphia were suc- 
cessfully treated in its wards. 

"A retrospective glance of the Samaritan Hospital shows 
conclusively it has been a successful institution from the begin- 
ning, and that its growth has been unprecedented by any hos- 
pital of its kind in the land, and its success is certainly due 
to the enthusiastic and indefatigable efforts of the many friends 
interested in its welfare, and much of this can be ascribed to 
the lady managers, who have been untiring in their work. 
Owing to the great increase in the work, the hospital is to-day 
as much in need of more room as it was two years ago w r hen 
the extension was made. It now needs more land and new 
buildings, for the work is there to warrant the acquisition, and 
it is hoped that the time is near when this will be realized." 



"THE BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS 

"BY MRS. FLORENCE K. BURKE. 

"When, in 1892, a committee of six ladies was appointed by 
Mr. Conwell to take charge of the * housekeeping ' affairs, no 
one had any idea that out of this small committee so large a 
one would grow, and that it would help so much in furthering 
the good work of the Samaritan Hospital. 

" This committee had entire charge of the house department, 
visiting it weekly, inspecting the house, and making sugges- 
tions to the trustees for improving the work in that depart- 
ment. 

"In 1894 this committee was increased to twelve, under the 
name of the ' Board of Lady Managers. ' They still retained 



Samaritan Hospital 221 



charge of the house department, and in a short time asked that 
they be allowed to have their own treasurer, offering to pay 
all household bills, which they have done every month until 
the beginning of the present year, when other arrangements 
were made. 

"In 1895 the corporation decided to increase the number ad 
infinitum, adding at that time about twenty-five ladies. This 
necessitated a rearrangement of the committees of the Board 
of Lady Managers, and the President planned the mode of 
working which was then adopted and has since been carried 
on so efficiently by the various committees. 

" The following is the list : Finance, Visiting, Flower, Linen, 
Ward Supplies, House Supplies, and Sewing. 

" The chairmen of these committees, together with the five 
officers, constitute the Executive Committee, and meet with 
the trustees at their regular monthly meetings. 

" In addition to paying the housekeeping bills, the board has 
come many times to the assistance of the trustees, and by giv- 
ing entertainments, etc., has raised large sums of money for 
special purposes. 

" At the beginning of this year, when our new Superintendent 
was appointed, it was deemed advisable by the trustees to 
have but one treasurer. At their next meeting it was decided 
to give monthly to the Treasurer of the trustees $250 toward 
the Building Fund, for one year; this they have done every 
month, and have also given about $400 additional. This 
money has been mainly raised by holding sales, teas, recep- 
tions, and other entertainments. A great many donations of 
groceries, bedding, clothing, etc., have also been solicited by 
the ladies. In connection with this board there is a Needle- 
work Guild which annually contributes about three hundred 
new articles of clothing and bedding. 

"The original committee consisted of Mrs. R. H. Conwell, 
Mrs. George A. Peltz, Mrs. E. P. Cadwallader, Mrs. William 
T. Burke, Mrs. Charles F. Shaw, Mrs. Albert Dingee." 

Mr. Conwell once said : " The hospital was founded in 
the hope that it would do Christ's work; not simply to 
heal for the sake of professional experience, not simply 



222 Russell H. Conwell 

to cure disease and repair broken bones, but to so do those 
charitable acts as to enforce the truth Jesus taught, that 
God would not that any should perish, but that all should 
come unto him and live. Soul and body both need the 
healing balm of Christianity. " 



CHAPTER XIX 



Conwell's motto, in the words which he often uses in 
giving advice to young men, is, " Do the next thing." 
His mind is unhampered by theories. He knows what 
ought to be done and why it ought to be done. He knows 
the secret of the proper adjustment of work to faith, and 
yet he rides no hobbies. It is a marvel to contemplate 
the ease and naturalness with which he perceives the rela- 
tion of cause to effect. He sees the need ; he watches 
the leadings of Providence ; he determines upon the right 
course of action; he launches the enterprise; he stands 
like a stone wall during the trying days of criticism and 
opposition which are the birth-pains of new movements ; 
he throws himself into it with the strength of a giant ; he 
knows just what to do at the proper time, or if not, he does 
the most feasible thing and profits by experience ; he per- 
fects his plans for broader work when the hour for the 
next step shall arrive ; he knows the kind of person for 
each specific duty, and introduces him to his proper sphere ; 
he is grateful for God's blessing, which he foresaw, and is 
not exalted by the applause of the world, which comes at 
a time when it is least needed. He whom the King of 
toil has crowned possesses the true patent of nobility. 
Conwell does one thing at a time; he gives his whole 
mind to it, and when he has finished, puts it entirely out 



i 



224 Russell H. Conwell 

of his thought. Many times he cannot tell you the theme 
of his sermon an hour after he has left the pulpit, and 
frequently does not recognize his discourse of the previ- 
ous day when handed him for correction on Monday morn- 
ing. If he did not thus conserve his vital forces he could 
not stand the wearing strain of an overburdened life. Do 
the next thing, do it well, and begin immediately at what- 
ever cost, has ever been the policy upon which he has 
acted. 

One of his peculiarities is his willingness to sacrifice 
himself for the sake of others. The Boston Traveller 
of October 23d, 1872, contained the following special 
dispatch : " Colonel Conwell, of Boston, the orator and 
writer, was seriously injured at Plainville to-day while 
stopping a runaway team with a carriage containing two 
ladies. It is feared he is fatally hurt. His friends are 
here. The inmates of the carriage were saved." The 
Hartford Conrant of October 25 th gave a more detailed 
account of the accident. " Runaway at Plainville — Gal- 
lant Conduct of Colonel Conwell. — While two young ladies 
by the name of Cullovvs were driven out by a coachman 
Wednesday morning, the horses took fright at an ap- 
proaching train, and, dashing through the fence, started at 
furious speed across a rocky field. The cowardly coach- 
man leaped from his seat and let go the reins, leaving the 
ladies to their fate. Col. R. H. Conwell, the writer and 
orator, of Boston, saw the condition of things and bravely 
rushed to the rescue. He overtook the team after they 
had broken the pole, and just as they were making a short 
turn which must have crushed the ladies with the carriage 
had he not seized the horses by the bridles. He is a 



"Do the Next Thing 5 ' 225 

powerful man, but so great was the headway that he was 
carried over rocks and ditches a distance of more than a 
hundred yards, and when the exhausted horses were finally 
stopped, their heads bled profusely where the harness 
straps cut in ; and the colonel was bruised and his clothing 
torn, and injured internally so severely that a physician 
was called, who for a while feared a fatal result. The 
ladies escaped without a scratch, but the carriage was al- 
most a total wreck. The colonel is doing well at this 
writing, but could not fill a lecture engagement -which he 
had at Plainville Wednesday night, as the physician would 
not let him be moved." 

Once when in broken health he visited his wife's cousin, 
Charles Hayden, at Blandford. Out in the rear of Mr. 
Hayden's house was a large pile of roots, stumps, and 
knotty logs which had been worked over by the wood- 
choppers and thrown aside as worthless, being considered 
too difficult to chop into firewood. Conwell secured an 
ax, a mall, and wedges, and reduced the whole pile to 
stove-lengths, replying to Mr. Hayden's protest, " I like 
to tackle a thing somebody else has given up." During 
this same visit he went with a picnic party to a neighbor- 
ing pond. In the midst of the afternoon's sport a boy was 
seized with the cramp while in swimming and was on the 
point of drowning, while the frightened bystanders ran hith- 
er and thither for some means of rescue. Upon arriving 
at the scene Conwell walked deliberately out into the water 
without stopping to remove even his coat, caught the boy as 
he came tip the second time, and coolly carried him ashore. 

One day, while a practicing attorney in Boston, he 
happened to meet upon the street his old friend, Deacon 



226 



Russell H. Conwell 



George W. Chipman, who invited him to come to the 
Sunday-school of which he was superintendent and teach 
a class. The class began with seven members and grew 
in four years to six hundred and twenty, with ages vary- 
ing from sixteen to sixty, having had a president, sec- 




CONWELL ACADEMY 



retary, treasurer, and executive and visiting committees, 
with a printed directory showing the name and residence 
of each member. The sick of the class were visited, the 
needy assisted, the funeral expenses borne of those who 
died poor, a monthly social gathering held, and an annual 
dinner given. As many as six hundred plates were often 
laid for these annual dinners. The number of conversions 
in this class was remarkable. With very few exceptions, 



"Do the Next Thing " 227 

the members had no church connection whatever before 
joining the class. 

Previous to entering the ministry he took a very active 
interest in Sunday-school work. He was hailed with de- 
light by the children wherever he went. As a means of 
stimulating the interest of the young he once offered to 
give "a sugar meeting-house" — a miniature church made 
out of sugar — to any child who would learn the poem, the 
first stanza of which reads : 

" If you cannot on the ocean 

Sail among the swiftest fleet, 
Rocking on the highest billow, 

Laughing at the storms you meet, 
You can stand amid the sailors 

Anchored yet within the bay, 
You can lend a hand to help them 

As they row their boats away." 

We were told by a friend that this venture cost Conwell 
$6,000. 

Conwell has always been a great student. He has 
carried books in his pocket all his life, and utilized every 
spare moment to gain information and discipline his mind. 
He learned five modern languages in addition to Greek 
and Hebrew. On the train, between his home and office, 
he mastered the higher mathematics and many difficult 
sciences. He learned one volume of Blackstone by heart 
while in the army. The day he was admitted to the bar 
in the supreme court of New York he had a Greek New 
Testament in his overcoat pocket. The evening he was 
admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in Washington 
he delivered an address in that city on " The Branches 



228 Russell H. Conwell 

Taught in the Old School of the Prophets." "A pro- 
fessor at Oberlin College has preserved as a curiosity an 
autograph book which was handed to Mr. Conwell at the 
Paris Exposition, 1878, and in which Conwell wrote im- 
promptu three verses of ' Mary Had a Little Lamb ' in 
seven different languages." 

Conwell's willingness to sacrifice himself in order to be 
of definite help to those to whom he speaks sometimes 
puts him in a very awkward position. While in London 
in May, 1898, he was invited to preach in Christ church, 
where Roland Hill, Newman Hall, and F. B. Meyer have 
ministered to large and admiring congregations. Here is 
the story in Conwell's own language : 

" The day I preached was the day for making an offering for 
the London Missionary Society, and so I put my mind and 
heart into an address to the givers to induce them to put their 
hands into their pockets. I thought it was an imposition to 
put a stranger in such a pulpit with the distinguished pastor 
sitting silent, but I determined to do what I could for Christ 
by presenting to them the duty to give largely to that special 
work. But I was shown that I had no business there, and I 
would not preach in London again if I had not already agreed 
to do so next Sunday at Brixton chapel ; for when I was about 
to ascend into the high pulpit, far above the congregation, Mr. 
Meyer arose and announced the taking of the offering, and 
urged the people to give. Such a sinking of heart and such 
a sense of humiliation and shame never before came into my 
experience. The taking of the offering before the sermon had 
never been thought of by me, and I had supposed, of course, 
that it w r ould follow the sermon. Alas! my text was violently 
wrenched out of joint, and my whole line of thought destroyed 
at one terrible swoop. The occasion for speaking was past, 
and my embryo sermon was still-born. 

"Then without a text or an idea, in the presence of that 
celebrated congregation, amid surroundings strange, and with 



"Do the Next Thing " 229 

a Yankee accent and tone, I climbed into a pulpit of thorns. 
As this is a private note, I can say that what I said I do not 
remember, and it is a mercy I cannot. I will never again 
waste a great man's time or disturb his congregation without 
inquiring carefully beforehand whether the collection comes 
before or after the sermon." 

He studies his failures as closely as his successes, and 
seeks to discover the whys that produce certain results. 
He has as little guesswork as possible. How often the 
wheels of progress are blocked by the very hand which is 
laboring to move them forward ! 

Conwell went into the Institutional Church work with 
the same irresistible ardor with which Neal Dow entered 
the temperance reform and Moody the work of an evan- 
gelist. He exalted the spiritual work of the Church as the 
supreme object of its existence. Everything was made 
subservient to the one glorious aim of bringing men to the 
Savior. He early became familiar with the principle of 
multiplying spiritual influence by thrusting others forward 
and putting himself into their lives and work. Had it not 
been for his self-reliance and ability to stand alone against 
great opposition, those noble enterprises which are now the 
pride not only of Grace Baptist Church, but of the city of 
Philadelphia, would never have survived the second anni- 
versary of their birth. When the Samaritan Hospital was 
first proposed, it met with a storm of opposition, and had 
it not been for the indomitable perseverance of its founder, 
would never have struggled through the years of its in- 
fancy. To-day the Samaritan Hospital treats from a 
thousand to fifteen hundred sick and suffering ones every 
month. It is on a permanent foundation, and there is not 
a shadow of doubt that it has come to stay. It lives be- 



230 Russell H. Conwell 

cause it fills a great need and was fathered by a wise 
leader. Conwell' s experiences give added emphasis to the 
thought that humanity is so constructed that, in order to 
render it the greatest assistance, one must be a leader. 

When the Temple College first started, no one but Con- 
well believed in its success ; his own church had no faith 
in it ; some prominent representatives of the Baptist denom- 
ination ridiculed it; some were openly hostile; but this 
large-hearted, self-made American once gave as a reason 
for assisting students : " When I find a poor man, a man 
who is very poor, I look back through my life to a little 
vacant room in that East Boston where my loved ones once 
were ; I look back upon those days of poverty and struggle, 
days so near starvation, when hunger was a daily guest and 
biting poverty and grinding economy kept the house ; and 
when I find a man in such circumstances now, I say, ' If 
God elevated me to such love undeserved, he will lift up 
this man ' ; I look back and say, ' Thank God for the hu- 
miliating sense of faults ; for the memory of errors ; of 
sins that once marred and blotted my life now forgiven ! ' 
Had it not been for these things, I might have done no 
good at all. God can turn evil to good. People come to 
me and say, i Here are nearly one hundred young min- 
isters you are trying to encourage, and there are twenty of 
them who don't know enough to preach the Gospel, and 
never will ; now, why do you encourage them in such an 
absurd undertaking ? ' Why ? Because if God can use 
me, he can use them ; that is the reason we help them. 
I look back upon the errors of bygone years — my blind- 
ness, my pride, my self-sufficiency, my wilfulness. If 
God would take me up in all my unworthiness and im 



"Do the Next Thing" 231 

perfection, and lift me to such a place of happiness and love 
as this, I say he can do it for any man." 

It was a great and sore need which brought the Temple 
College into existence. Two young brothers who were 
poor weavers, and whose lives had been robbed of their 
natural rights and opportunities by a father's thirst for 
drink, came to their pastor in 1884 and said the Lord had 
called them into the ministry. They were anxious to pre- 
pare themselves by using their spare time in profitable 
study. In Mr. Conwell they found a sympathetic listener 
and a helpful friend, who told them to come the next 
Thursday night and he would teach them himself. They 
came with five others, and the seven began just where they 
were to study for the ministry. It was a beginning away 
down, but that mattered not. Their pastor-professor had 
been a poor boy with very little money and a great load of 
ignorance, and yet he had risen; why should not they? 
One of those young men was fifteen years from his gradu- 
ation day. It was a kind Providence which inspired his 
heart, provided him a teacher, and graciously veiled the 
future. On and on he went ; and when on a Sunday after- 
noon in June, 1899, s i x °f hi s ministerial brethren gath- 
ered around him in the great Temple and laid on his head 
the hands of ordination, they felt they were setting apart 
to the struggles and hardships of the Gospel ministry 
one who had shown himself worthy of his exalted calling. 

The second night the class of beginners had grown to 
forty. A great need and a common-sense Christian with 
eyes open to the world and a heart made tender by a 
Savior's love, who himself had been a poor mechanic, 
had met. In a few years the institution enrolled eleven 



232 Russell H. Conwell 

hundred students, and in 1 899 over eight thousand. " Do 
the next thing." 

The Sunday-school of the Grace Baptist Church was 
large from the start ; but after Mr. Conwell's pastorate be- 
gan, in 1882, the Sunday-school overtaxed the capacity of 
the meeting-house. One day in 1883 a little girl by the 
name of Hattie May Wiatt came to the meeting-house, 
corner of Berks and Mervine streets, to attend the Sunday- 
school of Grace Baptist Church. There was no room for 
her; every department of the school was overcrowded; 
there was not even standing room for a little girl ; the pas- 
tor himself was obliged to explain to the little applicant 
why she could not be admitted. Hattie Wiatt turned away 
from the door of the Sunday-school with a heavy heart, 
and yet a heart not quite so heavy as the one which beat 
in the pastor's breast. The child's tears moved him to 
the very depths of his nature. Burdette has beautifully 
said: "God makes men's hearts so much bigger than 
men can build churches or hospitals ; that is the way the 
world grows — men keep trying to build up to God's plans; 
trying to make a ten-page sermon as big as a three-line 
text ; to make a creed as long and broad and deep and high 
as the eleventh commandment ; to develop a charity as 
beautiful and immortal as the nameless i certain Samari- 
tan ' ; trying to write the life of him the books of whose 
deeds ' the world itself could not contain ' ; that's the way 
the world grows better and broader and sweeter. " The 
little disappointed visitor thought of others as well as her- 
self, and remarked as she turned painfully from the door : 
"I will save my money and build a bigger Sunday-school, 
and then we can all go." The sweet spirit of him who 



"Do the Next Thing" 233 

once took little children in his arms and blessed them, 
and said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," inspired 
the little girl's heart to a noble sacrifice. She saved her 
pennies and denied herself candy and sweetmeats ; her 
heart was on fire with an idea; she believed a larger 
church could be built ; she was determined it should be 
done at whatever cost. What struggles she had, what bat- 
tles she fought, what victories she won have not yet been 
revealed to mortal eye. Let it suffice us to know that in 
a few short weeks her character was ripe for that celestial 
city into which the eyes of the beloved apostle once looked 
and " saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty 
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no 
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it : for 
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof." Crowded out of the house of God on earth, her 
spirit tarried but a short time in this cold world, which 
once had no room in home or inn for the infant Savior, 
and took its flight to " a house not made with hands, eter- 
nal in the heavens." She left as the sum total of her 
earthly possessions a little red pocketbook and fifty-seven 
cents with which to build a larger Sunday-school to which 
all might go. The pastor took charge of the legacy, and 
with misty eyes related the incident to his congregation, 
calling their attention to the hand of Providence pointing 
to that not distant day when a new house must be built. 

The strange Providence which opened the pastor's eyes 
to the need of an orphanage which would provide a home 
for the children of firemen and policemen who risked their 
lives for the good of their neighbors will illustrate what 
we mean by doing the next thing. Mr. Conwell was called 



234 Russell H. Conwell 

to officiate at a funeral of a fireman who lost his life in the 
falling of a burning building, and left three little children 
uncared for. Upon the same day he called on an invalid 
who was a " shut-in," and who expressed to him the desire 
to do something for helpless children who were without 
proper parental care and support. She was a gifted writer 
and wielded considerable influence. She could sit in her 
invalid's chair and write letters to many people who would 
be glad to contribute toward the support of an orphanage. 
Upon the same day a lady came to him and asked his as- 
sistance in securing her a position, saying that what she 
most desired would be to be matron of an orphanage. 
Still the same day a lady physician came to his study and 
said she had been working among a certain class of people 
with whom she had little in common, and offered her ser- 
vices free if she might be used to care for orphan children 
in an institution freed from certain undesirable elements 
which hampered her present position. Three voices in 
one day. Soon after, Mr. Conwell called on a former chief 
of police and found him thinking along the same line, feel- 
ing the same great need. He said the firemen and police- 
men needed an orphanage ; that if some responsible and 
progressive institution would start such a movement, sev- 
eral thousand dollars would be given by the policemen for 
its support. The names of fifteen other officers were 
noted, and many of them visited. All agreed that the 
orphanage was badly needed. Mr. Conwell went to his 
study, and called his private secretary and the financial 
secretary of the church to a private interview ; spoke to 
them of the need of an orphanage to care for the little ones 
left by policemen and firemen ; spoke of the peculiar coin- 






"Do the Next Thing" 235 

cidents of the day ; asked them to think it over and pray 
about it. For the lack of time the matter was tempo- 
rarily laid aside, and the secretary proceeded to read the 
morning's mail. The first letter opened was from the 
Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of "In His Steps," en- 
closing a check for $75, which he said he desired to give 
toward a movement that would help needy children. 

The door for an orphanage had opened wide ; following 
the leading of Providence, he had come to a conjunction 
of circumstances which seemed to make it evident that he 
was to take some step toward the founding of an orphan- 
age. Nothing was gotten up; the orphanage was deeply 
rooted before it attempted to bear fruit. It could not fail 
any more than a healthy young tree could help growing. 

An illustration of the way a single step has led to large 
and unforeseen results is afforded us by the Temple Guard. 
We quote from a short history of that organization which 
appeared in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in July, 
1899: 

" Eight and a half years ago the Rev. Russell H. Conwell 
surprised a great many people by organizing a military com- 
pany among his little boys. The old wiseacres shook their 
heads, and the elders of the old school wondered at this new 
departure in church work. Then again he fairly shocked them 
by making the organization non-sectarian, and securing one of 
the best tacticians in the city to instruct the boys in military 
science. . . . From the first the company has clearly demon- 
strated that it is the best-drilled military organization in the 
city, and the number of prizes fairly won demonstrates this. 
However, the company does not wish to be understood as 
being merely in existence for prize honors, although It cannot 
be overlooked that twenty victories over as many companies 
afford them the best record in Pennsylvania. ... In 1896 the 
Samaritan Rescue Mission was established by the Grace Bap- 



236 Russell H. Conwell 

tist Church, and proving a great financial burden, Dr. Conwell 
offered to give a lecture on Henry Ward Beecher. The Guard 
took the matter up, brought Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, despite 
her threescore years and ten, to Philadelphia for the first time 
in her life, and so great was the desire of the church-loving 
public of this city to attend that the mission did not perish." 

Mr. Conwell speaks out of his own experience when he 
says to young men : 

" I have far more faith in a young man's shaping his course 
by the bumps he gets in life than by those the phrenologist 
finds on his head. If in the course of any effort of his to move 
forward, God hits him squarely in the face, he had better go 
around God's hand the next time. Watch God's providences. 
Set your sails by his breezes. You can learn more by study- 
ing your own actions than by years of the study of phrenology. 
Don't trust to fortune-tellers of any stamp. Study the open 
doors, and your personal fitness for entering them — your edu- 
cation, your aptness, your opportunities. Let God lead you." 



CHAPTER XX 

SECRETS OF POWER 

" No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree 
that his life belonged to his race, and that what God gives him he gives 
him for mankind." — Phillips Brooks. 

" What is the secret of the wonderful success which has 
attended the labors of Russell H. Conwell?" has been 
asked by thousands. It seems almost ridiculous to at- 
tempt an answer, and yet for the encouragement of poor 
boys who dream of a broader life and a wider field of use- 
fulness, some answer ought to be given. 

There is no one secret of his success. " He was a com- 
bination of qualities strong and great which gave him the 
uncommon greatness of common sense," was said of Dr. 
John Hall, and that is true of Russell H. Conwell. 

We will mention a number and enlarge upon a few of 
the conspicuous elements of his success. 

Perhaps nothing contributes to his success as a minister 
of the Gospel so much as his sincere love for all classes of 
people and his ability to call out affection in others. He 
binds men to himself as by bands of steel. It is a kind 
Providence which has given him this power. His life 
would be unendurable if it were not inspired by love for 
God and humanity. He is so much sought after by all 
classes of people, making such a drain upon his time and 
strength, that if it were not for the relief afforded by his 



2 3 8 



Russell H. Conwell 



lecture trips he would soon collapse and go to his grave. 
When in Philadelphia he is busy every minute of his time 
at church, college, or hospital, but seldom in his study. 
One of the largest drafts upon his strength, yet a service 




SUMMER HOME, EAGLE S XEST 



which he never refuses, is visiting the sick and comforting 
the dying. He is sent for on such sad errands not only 
by his own congregation, but by all denominations. It is 
a rare occurrence that he is able to retire before midnight. 
He is frequently called up during the night, and his par- 
lors are often full of applicants for many kinds of service 
by six in the morning. His sincere love for his people is 
seen not alone in giving away the greater part of his in- 



Secrets of Power 239 

come,- amounting to some $30,000 a year, and remaining 
poor, but is conspicuously noticeable in his letters. In 
answer to a letter begging him to accept a call to the 
church, he wrote : " I frankly tell you I am in love with 
the church and the people. I believe I shall be very, 
very happy there. I wish I was sure of God's call now. 
How suddenly dear you both have become to me ! It 
seems like a friendship of years." 

In his letter to the church upon his departure for 
America in 1894, he wrote from Paris : "The only wish I 
hold now with any anxiety is to find our church circle no 
further broken when I come. Yet heaven is beyond ; that 
which seemeth night is only morning, which is a senti- 
ment I entreat you to remember should the Lord see fit to 
call me on to eternity while coming to you. Now, my 
beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, keep close to 
Christ and let love be without dissimulation. ,, 

Comrade Higgins says of the devotion of the boys of 
Company F for their captain : " I do not think he ever 
understood how his soldiers loved him. He was tireless 
in looking after them. He must have given away the 
greater part of his salary in sutler stores for the sick, or to 
make the soldiers' quarters more comfortable." 

The author once asked a dear old deacon in the Lexing- 
ton church, "Did you regret- Mr. Conwell's leaving?" 
After seventeen years of separation his eyes filled with 
tears as he replied, " Oh, my ! about as well have given up 
life itself." Mr. Conwell's position as pastor is rendered 
all the more difficult in consequence of his affectionate, 
sympathetic nature. Those who know him at all inti- 
mately lov2 him. It is not a cold, formal acquaintance- 



240 Russell H. Conwell 

ship, but one in which the affections have been laid hold 
upon. A kind of slavery attaches to love. Every one 
feels he has a claim on Conwell for his time and strength. 
Many will feel hurt when there is a seeming slight, how- 
ever unintentional it may have been. So many hundreds 
of claims crowding into the brief twenty-four hours neces- 
sitate a wise use of time. Where there is not an under- 
standing heart a neglect or omission, however unavoid- 
able, will cause a sting of bitterness and perhaps a rupture 
of pleasant ties. Disappointed affection sometimes recoils 
upon itself, and an enemy is made. Alas for thoughtless 
friends ! The bane of life is an unthinking devotion. To 
love with mind, soul, heart, and strength is the only safe- 
guard for a high order of friendship It is what Jesus de- 
manded of his followers. Mere ephemeral emotions will 
not perfect a soul nor extract the sweetness from the lus- 
cious fruit of friendship. 

Crowded with a thousand cares, his heart burdened with 
a thousand woes, it is a marvel to all who know him how 
Conwell maintains such a hold upon the hearts of his peo- 
ple. Kindness has become so deep-rooted a characteristic 
of his life that it is difficult to see how any one could be 
alone with him and not be better for the experience. 

He has a remarkable faculty for making every one at 
home in his presence immediately upon an introduction. 
The same is noticeable when he appears before a lecture 
audience. He seems to remove all unnecessary formali- 
ties, and the second minute after he begins to speak every 
unprejudiced listener is perfectly at ease. 

He seems to have a wonderful aptitude for attuning 
himself to the keynote of his associates, and harmonizes 



Secrets of Power 241 

readily with his surroundings, a capacity which avails 
much when human nature is to be moved. 

He has a sincere interest in individuals. He deals with 
people individually, as well as en masse, which renders 
him popular with the rank and file. In the army the 
officers were jealous of him. He associated with the pri- 
vates and frequently messed with them. 

An article which appeared in the Philadelphia Times, 
February 16th, 1893, shows the impression made upon a 
reporter on the occasion of Conwell's fiftieth birthday : 

"Thousands gathered at Grace Baptist Temple last evening 
to rejoice with the Rev. Russell H. Conwell on the comple- 
tion of his golden year, the fiftieth anniversary of his birth. 
Through all the felicitous congratulations of the eloquent men 
grouped around him, the popular pastor seemed to be unmoved. 
But when he arose to respond, and the vast congregation arose 
as one person and with smiling faces, applauding hands, and 
saluting handkerchiefs attested their admiration and devotion 
to him, then his body swayed, his voice trembled, and the tears 
on his eyelids proclaimed him a sympathetic man among men." 

He has the power of an unconscious sociability. He 
does not know how he does it. His whole thought is of 
others. He is gifted with a peculiar ability to inspire 
people with confidence that some noble and good work is 
possible for them. He is pre-eminently a man of faith — 
a man whom adversity could not bring down from the 
level of his lofty nature. In his mighty strides to power 
he has learned well the eternal lesson of self-renunciation. 
His is a great enthusiasm acting on business principles — 
a combination of largeness of vision, concentration of 
effort, and versatility of mind. He is never soured by 
discouragements, nor by the rascality of the evil-inten- 



242 



Russell H. Conwell 



tioned. He studies his failures more closely than his suc- 
cesses, and seeks at every turn of fortune to profit by his 




MR. CONWELL AND OX-TEAM, EAGLE S NEST 



experiences, listening prayerfully to see if he can discern 
the voice of the Lord in the circumstance. 

He has a foresight which avoids collisions and necessity 
for retracing steps. There is no guesswork. He has an 
impulsive and enthusiastic interest in the affairs of the 
moment, combined with the power of adjusting means to 



Secrets of Power 243 

ends which secures, in large degree, permanence of result. 
He has sanctified common sense. Nothing is undertaken 
unless a definite object is to be attained. He is independ- 
ent and self-reliant ; is not deterred from entering upon a 
new work or adopting a new method by the thought that 
it is not the usual method employed by others, provided 
he sees in it a greater degree of fitness. Custom is not 
allowed to take precedence over reason. 

Conwell has a mind which grasps much immediately 
upon the presentation of a subject. It is a mind which 
was kept healthy during the days of his early development 
when the strong physical system reveled in health and 
joy. There was little or no poisoning or stunting by pur- 
suing uncongenial studies merely to pass examinations 
required by a college curriculum. " Genius is an apti- 
tude by virtue of which its possessor can do certain work 
with greater ease and with higher excellence than persons 
without his qualifications." Capacity for hard work, while 
not genius, is the best possible substitute for it. 

Conwell has the power of sustained enthusiasm coupled 
with organizing ability. He is a born leader. He has 
the ability not only to set things in motion, but to keep 
them in motion. Many men can lift a great weight, do a 
great work, or launch a noble enterprise, but have not the 
power to carry it indefinitely after it is launched. For 
not a few preachers, a call to another field of labor, or a 
desire to do evangelistic or literary work, or a wife's im- 
paired health has come in the nick of time and relieved an 
embarrassing situation. Mrs. Conwell's health is usually 
recuperated at the summer home. The literary work, on 
an average of a book every two years, goes on. Two hun- 



244 Russell H. Conwell 

dred lecture dates a year, in all parts of the United States 
and Canada, are filled; calls are thrown into the waste- 
basket; and the great Temple moves steadily, progres- 
sively, unfalteringly, on and on. Troops are recruited 
every week and put under training. When the front col- 
umns need strengthening or the pickets die at their posts, 
others are ready at the rear for promotion. 

His memory of faces and names has availed much in 
winning and holding friends, and is a marvel to those who 
know him. If a person rises in prayer-meeting and Mr. 
Conwell sees him, he ever afterward remembers him and 
can tell on what evening he rose and where he sat. When 
introduced to a stranger he stores the name away in his 
mind, and surprises the person when they meet years after- 
ward by calling his name as though they had been friends 
from boyhood. When we remember that there are re- 
quests for prayer every Friday and Sunday evening, and 
that at times these requests aggregate one hundred, we see 
how wonderful is his photographic memory. When Grace 
Church worshiped in the Berks and Mervine building the 
pastor kept a record of those who attended communion. 
He could look over the audience and photograph every 
face on his mind. When he had time he would go to his 
study and, turning to his membership roll, check off all 
who had attended communion, without a discovered mis- 
take in seven years' experience. 

Doubtless Mr. Conwell's entire consecration to his work 
avails more than any mental faculty. There is a momen- 
tum of power stored up in such a life which makes the 
walls of adamant fall down and disarms opposition. Of 
this, more will be said in another chapter. 



Secrets of Power 245 

Perhaps Mr. Conwell's greatest power is his vivid imag- 
ination. Napoleon said, " Imagination rules the world/' 
His descriptions are fascinating in their realistic beauty. 
He has painted the fall of Babylon, the last charge of the 
Old Guard, and hundreds of other historic scenes so vividly 
that the audience could actually see the picture as though 
the present had become suddenly transparent and they 
stood before the living facts. The real secret is, of course, 
that Mr. Conwell sees the scene himself and describes it 
as he sees it ; but two fundamental laws are to be ob- 
served, namely, to place the scene before the audience, 
and to make it life-size. The speaker who brings a hun- 
dred thousand men into a space twenty feet square con- 
fuses his audience and precludes the possibility of their 
seeing anything. A vivid and inspiring picture has been 
the salvation of many of Conwell's hastily prepared ser- 
mons. How wonderfully he has sometimes made the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane a reality, bringing the worshiper into 
sympathy with the Savior as no elaborated arguments on 
vicarious sacrifice could possibly have done ! 

In nothing does the average speaker fail so lamentably 
as in the development and use of this central faculty of 
the mind — imagination. A deep psychological thinker 
says of this faculty : " Here in this silent workshop of the 
human brain is first formed in microscopic miniature all 
the originals of man's outward doings. Here is the home 
of genius and the secret of life's failures. In this cham- 
ber murder is first committed, or the holiest acts of char- 
ity first performed. Do you ask what rules the world? 
Something so small that no microscope can find it, so 
silent that only the divine ear can hear it — human imag- 



246 Russell H. Conwell 

ination. The mistakes of the past and the hopes of the 
future are both found here. All literature was born in 
imagination, the length, intensity, and utility of its life 
depending on the strength of the imagining power which 
gave it birth." 



CHAPTER XXl 



LEARNING BY EXPERIENCE 



" To show men what is good and to make it seem possible make together 
the moral need of mankind." — Phillips Brooks. 

" Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and< power." — J. G. 
Holland. 

The purpose in this chapter is to give some of the re- 
sults of Mr. Conwell's experiments which will enable the 
reader to profit by his experiences. A man of God is al- 
ways a man of his time and for his time. Such were the 
prophets of old. While they were the heralds of eternal 
truth and the mouthpieces of God to kings and people 
under a theocratic government, the purpose of their ser- 
mons was to accomplish certain specific results in those to 
whom they spoke. Conwell is a man of God. He has 
done much for his own generation. He has taught much 
truth his age needed. At the same time he has conformed 
to and brought into prominence laws of universal applica- 
tion which sweep through all time. The slightest turn in 
the direction of promise is to be encouraged. It is often 
the smallest variation from the ordinary that proves to be 
the precursor of the greatest reform. If the present is 
properly cared for, the future will take care of itself. En- 
lightenment means pure purpose, a holy resolve, and a true 
standard. These make loyalty to truth and true loyalty. 



248 Russell H. Conwell 

It would be strange indeed if a man who is at the head of 
a movement which has developed with such surprising 
rapidity had not learned something by which his fellow- 
men could profit. Many experiments have been made and 
either radically changed, or else abandoned altogether. 

Mr. Conwell soon learned that in all movements which 
have as their purpose the elevation of the masses of hu- 
manity there must be frequent siftings and careful dis- 
crimination. The Temple College was organized with the 
idea of giving a free education to any poor person who 
might desire it. Experience taught him that even stu- 
dents did not appreciate what they did not pay for. Many 
would begin a course of study and drop it at their pleasure, 
doing themselves no good and vitiating the efforts of their 
teachers. It was found necessary to charge a nominal fee 
to all in order to weed out the unworthy. It was also 
found in the experience of Samaritan Hospital that people 
in moderate circumstances went to the hospital for treat- 
ment simply because it was free, thus crowding out the 
deserving poor while undermining the practice of honest 
physicians. Now those who can afford to pay are required 
to pay. It is the only just way to do. 

One winter The Temple pastor headed a movement to 
help the poor and unemployed men of the city by running 
a woodyard. He soon found that there were fifteen hun- 
dred honest men in Philadelphia who maintained them- 
selves and their families in decency, contributed to the 
churches and benevolent organizations of the city, and 
who were good citizens, who were making their living 
through the wood business. Benevolence so directed as to 
bring tramps and lazy idlers helped by charity into competi- 



250 Russell H. Conwell 

tion with honest men, and through shaving competition to 
ruin their business, was a misdirected charity. It was a 
waste of money, a great sin. When Mr. Conwell realized 
this fact he reached down in his own salary to the depth 
of $2,800, paid off the bills the mission workers had accu- 
mulated, and closed up the woodyard; learning by more 
ways than one that many difficulties beset the path of him 
whose heart is large and whose faith in humanity is great. 
Mr. Conwell's experience has taught him that people who 
make application for help are usually most undeserving. 
At the time of the death of his wife, as mentioned in an- 
other chapter, he resolved to give his lecture fees to the 
education of poor students. At first he endeavored to help 
all who applied. Now his rule is to help no student who 
personally applies. It is absolutely fatal to a student's 
prospects to ask Mr. Conwell for assistance. He has edu- 
cated twelve hundred and sixty-one young men in college, 
and contributed largely toward the education of hundreds 
of others ; but he himself finds the needy boys to whom 
he gives. He exercises great care and delicacy in giving, 
aiming to avoid making inroads upon the self-respect of 
the recipient. A personal knowledge and an active sym- 
pathy are necessary to enable one to give most wisely. It 
is difficult to organize an emotion or an impulse. It is 
difficult to know, under all circumstances, whom to help and 
whom to reject; who will use the gift to better his condi- 
tion and improve his opportunity, and to whom it will 
prove a curse. In former centuries, when it was believed 
that poverty was synonymous with laziness and vice, and 
that the prosperous man was a righteous man, charity was 
administered harshly. The individual was blamed for his 



Learning by Experience 251 

poverty. Now, the money-earning capacity is by no 
means assumed to imply the possession of moral excel- 
lence. We have learned to judge men by their social 
virtues as well as by a business ability. A personal ex- 
perience is a necessary prerequisite to the best adminis- 
tration of charity. Happy the benevolent congregation 
whose leader has had the personal battle and the open eye ; 
whose discourse is rich with incidents gathered from a 
wide observation, and has in it the positive element of an 
intimate acquaintance. Happy the man or woman who is 
wise enough to profit by the experience of others. In 
some things we ought to be able to begin where our fathers 
left off. 

After a few years' experience Mr. Conwell was enabled 
to reverse completely, in the minds of his own congrega- 
tion at least, the idea of church attendance. He caused 
them to look upon it as a privilege, and not as a means of 
gratifying the pastor or pleasing the deacons. Persons 
were admitted to Grace Baptist Church only by ticket. 
Mr. Conwell considers it a great damage to any church to 
put out such a sign as " All Are Welcome," " Come with 
Us and We will Do You Good." People do not appreciate 
a thing that is cheap and something that everybody can 
have. Many efforts put forth in this day to reach the 
masses do more harm than good. It is a difficult problem 
and cannot be settled in a day ; but in some way, by some 
method, the unchurched masses must be brought to see — 
not that the church and religion need them, but that 
they need the church, that they need religion, that it is 
something worth having. After the adoption of the ticket 
system, standing room was at a premium. " I am glad," 



252 Russell H. Conwell 

Conwell once remarked to a friend, " when I get up on 
Sunday morning and can look out of the window and see 
it snowing, sleeting, and raining, and hear the winds shriek 
and howl. Then I say, 'I won't have to preach this morn- 
ing looking all the while at people patiently standing 
through the service.' " 

Conwell has succeeded in making his congregation con- 
scious of its indebtedness to Christ for much of the prog- 
ress, the brotherly feeling, and the doing " for humanity's 
sake M which characterize the nineteenth century. Presi- 
dent Eliot, of Harvard University, in his "American 
Contributions to Civilization," affirms : " The successful es- 
tablishment and support of religious institutions, churches, 
seminaries, and religious charities upon a purely volun- 
tary system is another unprecedented achievement of the 
American democracy." Yes, it is an achievement mani- 
fest in democracy. But where did the principle of volun- 
taryism originate ? Where did democracy get its impulse 
toward voluntary support of religious and benevolent en- 
terprises ? Directly from him who said of his own life, 
"No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." 
And again, " Greater love hath no man than this, that a 
man lay down his life for his friends. " 

It is the principle of the cross incarnate in a specific 
form of national government. The question needs to be 
asked again — asked from the pulpit, asked intelligently, 
asked in a note of penetrating sorrow that will make a 
selfish and greedy generation think, " Were there not ten 
cleansed, but where are the nine? " Where are the mil- 
lions who are willing to take all the material benefits ac- 
cruing from the Savior's life, teachings, and vicarious 



Learning by Experience 253 

death, and refuse to turn aside even to thank him ; who 
never go to his church, and plunge into perdition over 
his maimed and bleeding body ? 

To make men see that this awakened interest in and 
sympathy for others with whom we have no personal ac- 
quaintance, simply because they, too, are human beings like 
ourselves — which is one of the conspicuous evidences of 
real progress afforded by the nineteenth century, and 
which makes optimism easy- — derives its inspiration and 
vitality directly from Jesus Christ, the Elder Brother of 
man and the Son of God, is to supply a missing link in 
the thinking of honest men who remain outside the Church. 

The new conception of church attendance led The Tem- 
ple congregation to speak of their work in smaller build- 
ings, in other parts of the city, as " branches " of the 
church, not " missions" of the church; endeavoring to in- 
culcate in the minds of those who attended that the Chris- 
tian workers who contributed their money and participated 
in the services were there to assist, and not to carry, the 
community to a higher plane of living. 

Respecting the great fairs which have played so con- 
spicuous a part in the history of the church, another word 
needs to be said. Mr. Conwell did not originate the idea. 
The church held fairs before he became its pastor. He, 
however, awakened a new motive and completely revolu- 
tionized the fundamental idea of the church fair. Instead 
of holding it for the purpose of making money, they hold 
a fair for the purpose of reaching the outside world. In- 
stead of protracted evangelistic efforts, they hold a church 
fair. More people are converted during the great fairs 
held at The Temple than during their seasons of revival 



254 Russell H. Conwell 

effort under the leadership of evangelists of national repu- 
tation. The workers are required to say nothing about 
making money, but to keep uppermost in their minds the 
purpose of reaching the unconverted. " The Lord have 
mercy upon any church which has not enough of the spirit 
of Christ to bring its membership into the close contact with 
the world required by a church fair. A church fair held 
for the purpose of making money has been a curse to many 
a church ; but a church fair held for the purpose of show- 
ing the world how happy Christian people can be in the 
service of the Lord is a great blessing." 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE ORATOR 

The president of a theological seminary once remarked 
to his class of young preachers, that if Conwell would stand 
before his congregation and simply work his lower jaw, 
even though he recited Choctaw or Chinese, he would 
produce a profound impression on the admiring listeners. 
The statement is true, perhaps. But it needs to be inter- 
preted in the light of a thought the venerable teacher had v 
in mind, or else it will be sensationally misleading. What 
is there about Mr. Conwell's lower jaw, or his presence, 
which produces such mesmeric effects upon his listeners? 
Daniel Webster can help us to take one step toward the 
answer of this important question: " When public bodies 
are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great 
interests are at stake and strong passions excited, nothing 
is valuable in speech further than it is connected with high 
intellectual and moral endowments." It being self-evi- 
dent that it is not the language alone, but certain superior 
qualities back of the language, and remembering that the 
orator, in common with men in all lines of action, is under 
the sway of law, we can approach little nearer the secrets 
of Mr. Conwell's oratorical powers than to say that he is a 
law unto himself, and the mere movement of his jaw will 
produce surprising results. Upon what meat doth this our 



256 Russell H. Con well 

Conwell feed, that he is grown so great ? To what laws 
does Mr. Conwell conform, through what stages of devel- 
opment has he passed, what latent powers commonly un- 
employed has he harnessed to his intellectual engine? 
These are questions which we should ponder deeply if we 
are to profit by his successes, or follow the path others 
have blazed through the primeval forests of unutilized 
forces. 

Oratory is the science of effective speech, and never in 
the world's history was it so greatly needed as now. There 
is so much speech that is not effective. We know so much 
of which we do not appreciate the full significance, which 
we do not realize. The primal function of the orator is 
not to impart information, but to move to action. The 
press may transform the whole earth into one magnificent 
audience-room, where men may gain vast and useful infor- 
mation ; but that which influences the will and brings facts 
to bear upon the intellect so as to reveal the true signifi- 
cance of life must forever remain in the domain of true 
oratory. 

Prof. Silas S. Neff's wise words should have a wide 
circulation among students. He says : 

" Every individual the orator meets presents a privilege for 
the exercise of his power; every assembly he enters yearns for 
his inspiration and guidance. In his absence society stagnates, 
religion languishes, reforms hesitate, the hand of benevolence 
drops, the voice of sympathy hardens, governments tremble in 
uncertainty, and civilization wavers. This power of truth in- 
carnate will lead you sympathetically to the bedside of the 
sick, and inspire you with such thoughts and emotions as will 
enable you to meet the possibilities of that exacting situation. 
It will enable you with wisdom and power to impel to the 
highest purposes thousands of otherwise wavering, apathetic 



MR. CONWELL AT FIFTY -SIX 



2 5 8 



Russell H. Conwell 



people. It will serve you in every detail of professional or 
business life, transforming unfruitful drudgery into sponta- 
neous success. It will seize the artist's brush, guiding it in 
reproducing and idealizing the effects of nature. It will in- 
spire the musical composer to express the deepest and highest 
emotions of the race, or to suggest those complex feelings 
which a more highly developed people than have yet existed 
may be supposed to experience. Without this power, of which 
oratory is but one form of expression, there would have been 
no poetry, no literature, sculpture, art, and no sublime achieve- 
ment of history. Ye toiling multitudes, from millionaire to 
laborer, from artist to artisan, possess yourselves to a higher 
degree of the mental forces which produce what has been nar- 
rowly called oratory, and there will come to you the realiza- 
tion of every soul's struggle by which to project yourself into 
other lives, there to influence and uplift, make people better, 
happier, and more useful, the failure to attain which makes us 
exclaim, ' What signifies our work and our wealth if mankind is 
no better because we live ? ' The orator is the leader of men, not 
by inheritance or election, but by virtue of inherent power." 

Mr. Conwell's general outline for a speech is : introduc- 
tion; statement of facts; argument or conclusion ; appeal. 

It will readily be seen that this is a natural and logical 
arrangement, and almost any subject can be profitably dis- 
cussed under these four heads. In the introduction the 
chief object is to win favorable attention. The wandering 
thoughts of the audience must be collected and centered 
on your subject. The audience must be brought into har- 
mony with the speaker and with each other. Mr. Conwell 
has a very happy faculty of making his audience feel per- 
fectly at ease in his presence and of securing their entire 
confidence at the opening of his address. This he accom- 
plishes by a reference to a current event, a lively joke, a 
declaration of his purpose to do them good and thus make 
the evening an occasion of profit, expressing his apprecia- 



The Orator 259 

tion of their being present, or by a passing allusion to the 
importance of his theme. He is of commanding pres- 
ence, and impresses one as being master of the situation 
and having something to say which others desire to know. 
His interest in his hearers and determination to be a 
blessing to them are manifestly genuine, and many years 
of unselfish toil in humanity's behalf has stamped upon his 
countenance an expression of benevolence which lends con- 
firmation to his words. 

His second division, " statement of facts," opens an in- 
exhaustible storehouse of information which his extensive 
travel, keen observation, and persistent study have fur- 
nished. If his address is to farmers, he will employ a dif- 
ferent order of facts and illustrations from what he would 
in addressing professional men. An orator should know 
vastly more about his subject than he can possibly impart 
in one speech, and be able to meet men on their own 
ground. He must be an accurate judge of human nature, 
so as to state such arguments and use such illustrations as 
will be safely within the grasp of the great majority pres- 
ent. He must be truthful, clear in statement, and express 
his thought in the pure, simple language of the common 
people. He must avoid using high-sounding and technical 
terms which are foreign to the vocabulary of the average 
listener. The speaker whom an audience will want to 
hear a second time is one who can lodge in the minds of 
his hearers the most practical information, and paint the 
most vivid pictures, thus encouraging their aspirations and 
stimulating interest. Mr. Conwell argues from the known 
to the unknown, arranges his facts in cumulative order, 
gathering a momentum of interest and riveting the atten- 



260 Russell H. Conwell 

tion at each step. He gleans his facts from the common 
experiences of life, is a careful observer of the smallest de- 
tails, and always speaks for the purpose of accomplishing a 
definite result, never at random or to kill time. He occa- 
sionally restates a premise or refers to a previously men- 
tioned fact, but goes straight from introduction to conclu- 
sion, and knows when to stop. The gift of continuance 
has spoiled many a good speech. 

In the third division of his subject, that of conclusion 
or argument, an orator should be scrupulously, even se- 
verely, logical. The conclusion he reaches grows naturally 
out of the facts he has just presented. An attempt to force 
a false conclusion on an audience, or to be in the least tricky, 
will weaken confidence in the speaker and scatter his in- 
fluence to the winds. The conclusion should also be prac- 
tical and have some personal application to the listeners. 

That the apostle Paul was a master logician is shown 
in the fact that in his epistles he never forgets the relation 
existing between doctrine and duty. He lays down great 
principles of life, unfolds the momentous truths of the 
Gospel, but never in a recorded instance did Paul fail to 
lead on to the practical application of the truth he declares. 
His favorite word, "wherefore," is a conspicuous turning- 
point in all his epistles. The greatest orators have been 
great reasoners. Mr. Conwell is no exception to the rule. 
He frequently makes very striking statements, but reasons 
so closely and arrives at his conclusions so naturally that the 
most skeptical are won over to his side and are completely 
in his hands when he makes the personal appeal to act. 

In the fourth or last division, the appeal or peroration, 
Mr. Conwell is a giant. 






The Orator 261 

There have been times when he was completely lost in 
his theme and surrendered himself to the power of an all- 
absorbing emotion, seemingly inspired by supernatural 
powers. The thunderbolts were but playthings in his 
hands. His eyes flashed, his face was illumined by a 
strange light, his body quivered, his voice became capable 
of expressing all shades of feeling, his manner as excited 
as the rushing waters of the cataract. An unquenchable 
enthusiasm born of the sublime impulses of a loving heart 
seizes upon his every nerve, while the enraptured listener 
holds his breath spellbound. Such mountain- peaks of ora- 
torical experience Webster had in mind when he wrote : 
" The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, 
the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, 
speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing 
every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right on- 
ward to his object — this is eloquence, or rather it is some- 
thing greater and higher than all eloquence : it is action, 
noble, sublime, godlike action." 

Eloquence is truth packed together until it takes fire; 
hence he who would be eloquent must see to it that his 
facts are vividly and strongly related to one another. 
There is little energy-producing power in disconnected 
words, and a loose- jointed speech is seldom effective. 

A gentleman who attended the Grand Army encamp- 
ment at Philadelphia in September, 1899, gave in a private 
letter to a friend the following account of Mr. Conwell's 
address at the banquet given to President McKinley : 

"At the table with the President was Russell H. Conwell, 
and no one near me could tell me who he was. We mistook 
him for the new Secretary of War, until Secretary Root made 



262 Russell H. Conwell 

his speech. There was a highly intelligent and remarkably 
representative audience of the nation — in truth, one of the 
best, perhaps, gathered on the face of the earth; at a magnifi- 
cent banquet in the hall decorated regardless of cost. 

"The addresses were all specially good and made by men 
specially before the nation. Yet all the evening till after 
midnight there were continuous interruptions and much noise 
of voices, dishes, and waiters. Men at distant tables laughed 
out often. It was difficult to hear at best, the acoustics were 
so bad. The speakers took it as a matter of course at such a 
* continuous performance.' Some of the Representatives must 
have thought they were at home in the House at Washington. 
They listened or not, as they chose. The great hall was quiet 
only when the President gave his address, except when the en- 
closed remarks were made long after midnight, when all were 
worn out with speeches. 

" There sat this man, unnoticed by half the company, who yet 
was one who I am told by Philadelphians has been for nearly 
forty years one of America's greatest orators. It really does 
seem certain that no man living has addressed so many thou- 
sand people as he has. He has no living equal. He is the 
head of the lyceum platform unquestionably. He was a close 
friend of Beecher and an acquaintance of Longfellow and 
Gough. This is the curiosity : that he could have been going 
on in pulpit, platform, and book-writing with such great effect 
so many years, and seem so little known, even in his own city. 
Burdette wrote a biography of him years ago. He is president 
of the largest college, in point of numbers, in America (The 
Temple) ; he is founder of the Philadelphia Orphans' Home, 
the chief supporter of the Samaritan Hospital of Philadelphia, 
and preacher to the largest church congregation in the world. 
For years and years one can only get into the Baptist Temple 
by ticket, when Conwell is there, and often an overflow of 
two thousand meet in the lower hall. His church seats nearly 
a thousand more than the great Academy of Music in Philadel- 
phia. 

" When, about the last thing, Conwell was introduced by the 
chairman, no one heard his name because of the noise at the 
tables. Two men asked me who he was. But not two min- 
utes after he began, the place was still and men craned their 



The Orator 263 

necks to catch his words. I never saw anything so magical. 
I know how you would have enjoyed it. Its effect was a hot 
surprise. The revelers all worn; the people ready to go 
home; the waiters impatient; the speech wholly extempora- 
neous. It was a triumph that did honor to American oratory 
at its best. The applause was decisive and deafening. I 
never heard of anything better done under such circumstances. 
" None of the morning papers we could get on the train men- 
tioned either Conwell or his great speech. Perhaps Conwell 
asked the reporters to suppress it. I don't know as to that. 
But it was the first thing we looked for. Not a word. There 
is no clue to account for that. Yet that is the peculiarity of 
this singular life: one of the most public, one of the most 
successful men, but yet one of the least discussed or written 
about. He was to us as visitors the great feature of that ban- 
quet as a speaker, and yet wholly ignored by the press of his 
own city. The United States Senator Penrose seemed only to 
know in a general way that Conwell was a great benefactor 
and a powerful citizen and preacher. Conwell is a study. I 
cogitated on him all day. I was told that he marched through- 
out the great parade in the rear rank of his G. A. R. post. It 
is the strangest case of a private public life I ever heard men- 
tioned. The Quakers will wake up resurrection day and find 
out Conwell lived in Philadelphia. It is startling to think 
how measureless the influence of such a man is in its effect on 
the world. Through forty years educating men, healing the 
sick, caring for children, then preaching to a great church, then 
lecturing in the great cities nearly every night, then writing 
biographies; and also an accessible counselor to such masses 
of young people! " 

The address referred to in the foregoing letter was taken 
down in shorthand, and was substantially as follows : 

" Comrades : I feel at this moment as Alexander Stephens 
said he felt at the close of the war of 1865, and it can well be il- 
lustrated by the boasting athlete who declared he could throw 
out twenty men from a neighboring saloon in five minutes. He 
requested his friend to stand outside and count as he went in 
and threw them out. Soon a battered man was thrown out the 



264 Russell H. Conwell 

door and far into the street. The friend began his count and 
shouted 'One!' But the man in the street staggered to his 
feet and angrily screamed: * Stop counting! It's me! ' When 
this feast opened I was proudly expecting to make a speech, 
but the great men who have preceded me have done all and 
more than I intended to do. The hour is spent — they are 
sounding 4 taps ' at the door. I could not hope to hold your 
attention. It only remains for me to do my duty in behalf of 
Meade Post, and do it in the briefest possible space. 

" Comrades of Boston and New York, you have heard the 
greetings when you entered the city — you have seen the gor- 
geous and artistic decorations on halls and dwellings — you 
have heard the shouts of the million and more who pressed 
into the streets, waved handkerchiefs from the stands, and 
looked over each other's heads from all the windows and roofs 
throughout that weary march. Here you see the lovely dec- 
orations, the most costly feast, and listen to the heart-thrilling, 
soul-subduing orchestra. All of these have already spoken to 
you an unmistakable message of welcome. Knowing this city 
as I do, I can say to you that not one cornet or viol, not one 
hymn or shout, not one wave in all the clouds which fair 
hands rolled up, not one gun of all that shook the city, not one 
flush of red on a dear face of beauty, not one blessing from the 
aged on his cane, not one tear on the eyelids which glowed 
again as your march brought back the gleam of a morning 
long since dead, not one clasp of the hand, not one ' God bless 
you! ' from saint or priest in all this fair city, but I believe has 
been deeply, earnestly sincere. This sumptuous repast is not 
the result of pride — is not arranged for gluttony or fashion. 
No political scheme inspired its proposal, and no ulterior mo- 
tive moved these companions to take your arm. The joy that 
seems to beam in the comrade's eye and unconsciously express 
itself in word and gesture is real. It is the hearty love of a 
comrade who showed his love for his country by battle in 1862, 
and who only finds new ways in time of peace for expressing 
the same character now. The eloquence of this night has been 
unusually, earnestly, practically patriotic and fraternal. It 
has been the utterance of hearts beating full and strong for 
humanity. Loyalty, fraternity, and charity are here in fact. 
It is true, honest, hearty. Such fraternal gatherings may be 



The Orator 265 

as important for liberty and justice as the winning of a Gettys- 
burg. For the mighty influence of the Grand Army of the 
Republic is even more potent now than it was on that bloody 
day. Peace has come and the brave men of the North recog- 
nize and respect the motives and bravery of that Confederate 
army which dealt them such fearful blows believing they were 
in the right. But the peace we enjoy and the greatness of our 
nation's name and power are due as much to the living Grand 
Army as to the dead. I am getting weary of being counted 
' old/ but I am more tired of hearing the soldier overpraised 
for what he did in 1861. You have more influence now than 
then, and are better men in every sense. At Springfield, Illi- 
nois, they illustrated the growth of the city by telling me that 
in 1856 a lunatic preacher applied to Mr. Lincoln for his aid 
to open the legislative chamber for a series of meetings to 
announce that the Lord was coming at once. Mr. Lincoln re- 
fused, saying, ' If the Lord knew Springfield as well as I do, 
he wouldn't come within a thousand miles of it/ But now 
the legislative halls are open, and every good finds welcome 
in that city. The world grows better — cities are not worse. 
The nation has not gone backward, and all the good deeds did 
not cease in 1865. The Grand Army of the Republic, speak- 
ing plainly but with no sense of egotism, has been praised too 
much for the war and too little for its heroism and power in 
peace. Does it make a man an angel to eat hardtack? Does 
it increase the weight of a man's brain to smell powder? Or 
does it educate in inductive philosophy to chase a pig through 
a Virginia fence? Peace has its victories no less renowned 
than war. The Grand Army is not growing old. You all feel 
younger at this moment than you did at the close of the day's 
march. Your work is not finished. You were not fossilized 
in. 1 865. The war was not a nurse, nor was it a very thorough 
schoolmaster. It did serve, however, to show to friends and 
country what kind of men America contained. Not I nor you 
perhaps can take this pleasing interpretation to ourselves, but 
looking at the five hundred thousand men who outlived the 
war, we see that they were the same men before the war and 
have remained the same since the war. Their ability, friend- 
ship, patriotism, and religion were better known after they had 
shown their faith by deeds, but their identity and character 



266 Russell H. Con well 

were in great measure the same. Our Presidents have been 
taken from the ranks of the army. But it would be a mockery 
of political wisdom to declare that a free, intelligent people 
elect a chief executive simply to reward him for having been 
in the war of 1861. Captain Garfield, Lieutenant Hayes, Ma- 
jor McKinley, and General Grant were not put at the head of 
the nation as one would vote a pension. They were elected 
because the people believed them to be the very best states- 
men they could select for the office. For a time every foreign 
consul except four were soldiers. Two-thirds of Congress had 
been in the army. Twenty-nine governors in the same year 
had been in military service. Nine presidents of universities 
had been volunteers in 1863. Three thousand postmasters ap- 
pointed in one year were from the army. Cabinet officers, cus- 
tom-house officers, treasury officials, judges, district attorneys, 
and clerks in public offices were almost exclusively selected 
from army men. Could you look in the face of the nations 
and declare that with all our enterprise, learning, progress, 
and common sense, we had such an inadequate idea of the re- 
sponsibilities of government that we elected men to office who 
were incapable, simply because they had carried a gun or 
tripped over a sword! No, no. The shrewd Yankee and the 
calculating Hoosier are not caught with such chaff. They se- 
lected these officers as servants of the nation because the war 
had served to show what sort of men they were.- In short, they 
chose them to high positions because they were true men. 
They are just as true men now. They are as patriotic, as in- 
dustrious, as unselfish, as brave to-day as they were in the dark 
days of the rebellion. Their efforts are as honest now as they 
were then, to perpetuate free institutions and maintain the 
honor of the flag. 

"They have endowed colleges, built cathedrals, opened the 
wilderness to railroads, filled the American desert with roses, 
constructed telephone, telegraph, and steamship lines. They 
have stood in classroom and in the pulpit by the thousand; 
they have honored our courts with their legal acumen; they 
have covered the plains with cities, and compelled the homage 
of Europe to secure our scholars, our wheat and our iron. The 
soldier has controlled the finances of banking systems and rev- 
olutionized labor, society, and arts with his inventions. They 



The Orator 267 

saw poor Cuba, beautiful as her surf and femininely sweet as 
her luscious fruits, tortured in chains. They saw her lovely 
form through the blood that covered her, and Dewey, Sampson, 
Schley, Miles, Merritt, Sigsbee, Evans, Philip, Alger, and 
McKinley of the Grand Army led the forces to her rescue. 
The Philippines in the darkness of a half-savage life were 
brought unexpectedly under our colors because Dewey and his 
commanders were in 1898 just the same heroes they were in 
1864. 

" At the bidding of Meade Post, then, I welcome you and bid 
you farewell. This gathering was in the line of duty. Its 
spectacle has impressed the young, inspired the strong man, 
and comforted the aged. The fraternity here so sincerely ex- 
pressed to-night will encourage us all to fold the old flag more 
tenderly, to love our country more deeply, and to go on in 
every path of duty showing still the spirit of '6i wherever good 
calls for sacrifice or truth for a defender." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CONWELL IN PRAYER 

" Within four weeks I have witnessed the tears of scores of sinful men 
and women, who, feeling- the cold and darkness of their situation in the 
world, having no light here and no Father in heaven, have^ called out in 
despair, 'It seems hopeless! O God. forgive me!' There is something 
unspeakably grand in pointing such souls heavenward, and waiting with 
them in prayer for the pearly door to open. Let lovers tell of love accepted, 
let soldiers speak of the hour of victory, and let long-imprisoned men tell 
of their release ; but, ah' to the entranced soul of a Christian watching by 
a kneeling sinner waiting, for Jesus, there is a far sublimer sense of holy 
awe ; and, when the door of heaven does open to the sinner, a more thrill- 
ing joy gleams into the Christian's soul, and one which even heated tears 
cannot express. 

" O Christian, would you taste of bliss unspeakable, and find heaven here 
below ? Plead with some loved one to stand beside you, or kneel with you, 
and urge him to call for Jesus with repentant heart. Then you shall catch 
the shadows of loved forms as they pass and repass the windows of heaven, 
and your waiting shall be rewarded with the sight of the open door, and 
the long-unseen faces radiant within, — a joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
— CONWELL, " The Open Door" from s< Gleams of Grace." 

Mr. Conwell teaches his people that " Man is largely 
the architect of his own fortune"; that "The way for 
men to prosper in all that is worthy in human effort is in 
the full exercise of their talents to the best advantage " ; 
that " Unless a man avails himself of the opportunities 
which come to him in life he may expect no success " ; 
that " Where there is a will there's a way" ; that "With 
the vigor of a personal will a man may make the walls of 



270 Russell H. Conwell 

adamant to fall before him and accomplish what seems to 
us to be an actual miracle" ; that " The methods which 
succeed are always those that work in accordance with the 
great plan of God in the universe"; that "Perseverance, 
economy, and good character have much to do with pros- 
perity " ; that " Faith without works is dead." 

But he also teaches them that there is potency in prayer. 
There are unseen forces in the world of which we know 
but little. There is a God who hears and answers the 
prayers of his children. As a test of a young man's char- 
acter is the use he makes of his spare minutes, so one im- 
portant test of a man's character and worth is his willing- 
ness to put himself completely in the hands of God and 
make his life a channel through which God can work in 
accomplishing much that lies beyond mere human power. 
" There is planted in every human heart this knowledge, 
namely, that there is a power beyond our reach, a mysteri- 
ous potency shaping the forces of life, which if we would 
win we must have in our favor. There come to us all 
events over which we have no control by physical or 
mental power. Is there any hope of guiding those 
mysterious forces? Yes, friends, there is a way of secur- 
ing them in our favor or preventing them from going 
against us. How? It is by prayer. When a man has 
done all he can do, still there is a mighty, mysterious 
agency over which he needs influence to secure success. 
The only way he can reach that is by prayer." 

If the reader has any doubt of the truth of these words 
of Mr. Conwell we ask him to account for the work ac- 
complished by the late George Miiller. . Here is an ex- 
tract from Dr. Pierson's life of that wonderful man of 



Conwell in Prayer 271 

prayer : " After sixty years of active life for the Lord he 
could look back and see how, commencing a poor man and 
depending only on God in answer to prayer, never having 
asked a man for one dollar, he had built five large orphan- 
houses and taken into his family over ten thousand orphans, 
expending for their good within £12,000 of a round 
million. He had given aid to day schools in many lands 
where 150,000 children had been taught, at a cost of over 
£110,000 more. He had circulated nearly 2,000,000 
Bibles and parts of the Bible at a cost of £40,000 more, 
and over 3,000,000 tracts and books at a cost of over 
,£260,000, making in all an astonishing aggregate of nearly 
$7>500,ooo disbursed by this man," 

In connection with Mr. Conwell' s work and that of his 
noble church in Philadelphia, there have been at work 
many strange, mysterious, unaccountable causes which 
have produced surprising results. We shall not be able 
to account for all the facts, but it is our privilege to record 
a few concerning which there is no shadow of doubt. 
The prophetic element is not absent from Conwell' s 
preaching nor the miraculous from the history of Grace 
Church. All sincere believers in Christ's promise, " Lo, 
I am with you all the days, even unto the completion of 
the age," together with all honest doubters, will be inter- 
ested to know incidents of God's gracious dealings with 
the modern church which are above and beyond the ex- 
planation of our feeble understanding. One who accepts 
the Christian conception of God as defined by Dr. Clark, 
" God is a personal spirit perfectly good, who in holy love 
creates, sustains, and orders all," can readily believe that 
he hears and answers the prayers of his children when 



272 Russell H. Conwell 

asked in a Christlike spirit and with a desire to further 
the cause of righteousness on the earth. 

There are many reasons which would lead us to expect 
miraculous answers to prayer in connection with Mr. Con- 
well's work ; and as Jesus himself performed many wonder- 
ful works and said, " Believe me for the work's sake," a 
few definite answers to the prayers of one of his servants 
ought to be recorded to strengthen the faith of others who 
believe in the God whom he serves. That which we call 
the supernatural is usually the most natural. Once the 
Son of God became incarnate in human flesh, and there 
appeared in Bethlehem of Juclea the most supernatural 
object upon which human eyes ever rested. And yet a 
baby boy in his mother's arms is the most natural of all 
earth's beautiful pictures. Conwell invites by his trans- 
parent modesty the incoming of divine truth. To him 
religion is a vitalizing personal experience. The Christ 
who saved him and blotted out the sins of reckless atheis- 
tic ramblings is a living reality to Conwell. He leans 
upon his Master's breast, talks to him and loves him 
with the directness and devotion of a warm personal friend- 
ship. He leads a life wholly devoted to the Son of God, 
who "knew what was in man" and gave his life in love. 
Love is God's desire to impart himself to others. This 
devoted preacher's life is attuned to the same sweet har- 
mony of self-sacrifice ; he lives much of his life in that 
peace which is a reflection of God's tranquillity, and know- 
ing what will be in harmony with the will of God is en- 
abled to ask for much, and not ask amiss. The Lord has 
been pleased to answer many petitions of his younger 
brother Russell, and, because the need was great and 



Conwell in Prayer 273 

Russell a co-worker whom he could trust, many answers 
came immediately. Not only have the answers come in 
miraculous ways, but the prayer often puts the pastor and 
people into such a relation to the object as to secure it by 
personal endeavor. Prayer often changes ourselves while 
securing the blessing of God upon our desire. 

For five years and three months previous to Grace 
Church's moving from the Berks and Mervine building, 
seven persons asked prayer for their personal salvation 
every week. No more, no less — always seven. Upon 
entering the great Temple the spell was broken, and ever 
afterward the number of requests varied greatly. While 
there probably is little in numbers, it is a fact that during 
that period both pastor and people enjoyed a sweeter peace 
and a closer walk with God than ever before or since. Mr. 
Conwell always gives an opportunity for special requests 
for prayer at every prayer- meeting and after -service on 
Sundays. Many and varied are the requests which come 
from earnest seekers, or from those who are burdened for 
others. At one meeting there were eighty-one requests 
for prayer, as follows : twenty persons asked prayer for 
themselves, three for husbands, eight for sons, one for a 
daughter, three for children, ten for brothers, two for 
sisters, two for fathers, one for a cousin, one for a brother- 
in-law, four for friends, one for a Sunday-school scholar, 
one for a Sunday-school class, four for sick persons, two for 
scoffers, one for a sinner, four for wanderers, five for per- 
sons addicted to drink, three for mission schools, five for 
churches. At one watch-meeting there were over one 
hundred requests for prayer, so earnest was the preacher's 
appeal to begin the year with God. 



274 Russell H. Conwell 

When The Temple was being erected, the pastor pro- 
posed to the church that they put in a new pipe organ 
and have it ready for the opening service. Despite Mr. 
Conwell's persuasive powers and trusted leadership, the 
church thought no more debts could be assumed, and voted 
against the organ project. Mr. Conwell was persuaded 
that the organ should go in, and spent one whole night in 
prayer in the church, where he was found by Mrs. Con- 
well at breakfast-time next morning. He decided to have 
the organ. When the contractor called that day to hear 
the decision, Mr. Conwell said : " Yes, I have decided to 
have the organ put in at once, but I frankly tell you I do 
not know where the money is to come from." The pros- 
pective builder said he was glad to hear an affirmative 
decision, and had no fear but that the money would be 
forthcoming in due time. A contract was signed for a 
$9,000 organ. A few months afterward, when $3,500 had 
been paid, Mr. Conwell's note for $1,500 came due and 
was demanded. The pastor's purse was empty, and every 
avenue for raising the money seemed closed. The note 
was due on Monday, and to have a note go to protest with 
building enterprises projected involving hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars would greatly weaken the confidence of 
the public. Sunday morning came. The matter could 
not be presented to the congregation and an appeal made 
for the money, because the church had once voted to dis- 
pense with the pipe organ for the present. It was an 
extreme position. The near friend whom he consulted 
told the pastor he had made a great mistake, and they 
would all suffer in consequence thereof. Burdened, 
crushed, almost disheartened, Mr. Conwell went to The 



Conwell in Prayer 275 

Temple to preach, scarcely knowing what he would say. 
If he had built that organ for any selfish purpose there 
would probably have been trouble, but the decision was 
given after a night spent in prayer for divine guidance, 
and God has never yet broken a promise for the lack of 
$1,500. When he entered his study his private secretary 
handed him a letter, which he opened and found enclosed 
a check for $1,500, sent by an unknown man in Massillon, 
Ohio, who heard Mr. Conwell lecture and had felt strangely 
impelled to send him $1,500 to use in The Temple work. 
Mr. Conwell prayed, rejoiced, cried, and preached that morn- 
ing in an inexpressible ecstasy of gratitude. He broke 
down in tears three times during the sermon. The people 
wondered what on earth was the matter with the pastor, but 
said it was the most powerful sermon he ever preached. 

At one after-service on Sunday evening a mother asked 
prayer for a wayward son in Chicago. Mr. Conwell and 
some of the deacons led the church in prayer for the boy, 
very definitely and in faith. At that same hour, as the 
young man afterward related, he was passing a church in 
Chicago, and felt strangely impressed that he ought to go 
inside and give his heart to Christ. It was something he 
had no intention of doing when he left his hotel a few 
minutes before. He went in, asked the prayers of the 
church, asked forgiveness for his sins, and accepted Christ 
as his personal Savior. In the joy of his new experience 
he could not keep the news from his mother, and wrote 
her immediately. The mother left Philadelphia soon after 
the meeting, and, upon her arrival home in a Connecticut 
town, received the letter from her son containing the good 
news of the answer to her prayers. 



276 Russell H. Conwell 

Many times Mr. Conwell is enabled to say with cer- 
tainty that he knows his prayers will be answered. One 
woman whom the doctors had given up to die consented 
to have an operation performed, provided Mr. Conwell 
would come and pray with her and remain in the room 
during the operation. After a season of earnest prayer 
the patient took the ether without fear of death, and came 
confidently and strongly from under its influence. A 
seventeen-pound tumor had been removed. The doctor 
said to the devoted pastor, " You have no idea this woman 
will get well, have you?" "I know she will," was the 
reply; and she did. 

A young married woman, a member of Grace Church, 
was ill with consumption and lying at the point of death. 
Faithful physicians said she would probably not live till 
morning. Mr. Conwell was sent for to pray with the 
dying. While at her bedside he was strongly impressed 
with the conviction that she could get well, and asked the 
Lord very definitely that her life might be spared. After 
leaving the house he spent some time alone in prayer at 
the church, and returning to the house of suffering at 
midnight found the patient much better. She lives to- 
day, 1 899, and for nine years has been able to do her own 
work in the home. 

One evening in prayer-meeting Mr. Conwell read a 
letter from a gentleman requesting the prayers of the 
church for his little boy whom the doctors had given up 
to die. He stated in the letter that if God would spare 
his child in answer to prayer, he would go anywhere 
and do anything the Lord might direct. After reading 
the letter Mr. Conwell led in a prayer of unusual earnest- 



Conwell in Prayer 277 

ness, telling God that the cure of that boy meant much 
for the cause of Christ on earth, and beseeching him to 
interpose and save the precious life. Several members of 
the church prayed audibly for the child, and at the close 
of the meeting many expressed themselves as being confi- 
dent that their prayers would be answered. At that same 
hour the disease turned. The child has grown to be a 
young man, and with his father is a member of Grace 
Church. 

Many people have been converted at The Temple whose 
relatives made request for them, and they knew not of it 
until afterward. One evening in July, 1899, there were 
five answers to prayers, offered in the after-service, before 
the worshipers reached their homes. One request had 
been for a daughter, then at Asbury Park, N. J. At that 
same hour the daughter became restless and homesick and 
convicted of sin. After a season of weeping she wrote to 
her father in Philadelphia, " I feel that I am not as good 
as I should be," and declaring her determination to accept 
Christ and live a Christian life. 

The Templars accept their answers to prayers as evi- 
dence of increased responsibility, and work all the harder 
to answer their own prayers. The favor of God is no ex- 
cuse for holding their hands in godless idleness. Prayer, 
faith, and works should never be divorced the one from 
the other. The blessing of God seems to be continuous 
on Grace Baptist Church, and yet the answer to their 
prayers usually comes through some natural channel. 
During the pinching times of financial depression it was 
a very rare thing indeed to find a member of Grace Baptist 
Church out of work. Applicants for charity and for em- 



278 



Russell H. Conwell 



ployment came to the pastor by the hundreds, but seldom 
if ever from his own membership. The worshiper feels 
a sweet sense of the presence of God as Mr. Conwell rises 
from the organ, as the hour for closing prayer-meeting 
approaches, saying : " And now I want to give that same 
invitation I have given so many times in the last seventeen 
years. It never grows old. Are you seeking the Savior? 
It will greatly help you to express your desire. Or have 
you wandered away, or are you especially burdened — ex- 
press it by rising, and God will bless you. We will all 
remember you at our family altars." 

The experience of that sweet-spirited Christian and 
charming writer, Miss May Field McKean, we are happy 
to give in her own language : 

" Mr. Smith has asked me to tell his readers of the direct 
answer to prayer by which it would seem that my life on earth 
was given back for prolonged service to my Father here. To 
me the experience is so sacred that I hesitate to record it. 
Yet if by the simple recital of the facts God's power and will- 
ingness to bless may be brought more near to any heart, I feel 
that I ought not to withhold it. The failure of my health be- 
gan so far back in the days of active work, and was for years 
so insidious in its gradual advance, that as I look it is difficult 
to tell when the time of at least partial invalidism actually be- 
gan ; and so obscure was the disease that my physicians did 
not determine its nature until in their own belief it was too 
late for medical skill to render any permanent aid. As long 
ago as September, 1895, the professional verdict was that I 
would not live three months. At that time, and during pre- 
vious acute attacks, and many times since, it has been said 
that I lived on more by will power than by actual physical 
strength. I am not conscious of having deliberately willed at 
any time to live, only I have at no time come to the hour when 
it seemed to me that my work on earth was entirely completed. 
When superior allopathic advice promised nothing, I turned to 



Conwell in Prayer 279 

electricity, and for thirteen months remained under its most 
skilful application. For a time my general health seemed 
improved; but in October, 1896, when it became evident that 
I was not only deriving no permanent benefit but was again 
losing ground as to general condition, a change was made to 
homoeopathic treatment. Here again, though for a little while 
there were some hopeful signs, these speedily disappeared, and 
for six months my decline was gradual but unmistakable. The 
day my homoeopathic physician gave up the case he said to a 
professional friend (afterward reported to me through one of 
said friend's patients) : 4 The wonder is that she has lived so 
long, but the end must be very near now. Not only so, but 
she has reached a point now where nothing known- to the pro- 
fession can reach her case, even to ease and render less pain- 
ful the few remaining days she may still linger.' To another 
friend he indicated certain symptoms beyond which he said it 
would be impossible for me to live. Then came a day when, 
those symptoms appearing, my friends gathered around what 
they supposed to be my dying bed. Although so very ill, 
every nerve seemed fully alert, and I still remember distinctly 
every word and sensation of that day. I did not at the time 
know that they thought I was dying, yet I could not fail to 
note the particularly anxious solicitude of the faces of those 
about me, and I can recall how lovingly they held and chafed 
my hands, and wiped the cold beads of perspiration from my 
forehead. Presently — it was within a few minutes of eleven 
o'clock — I partly raised my body and threw myself crosswise 
of the bed. Some one went arounci to that side of the bed and 
placed a pillow under my head. My eyes were closed, and I 
suppose they thought I was not conscious; but I remember 
hearing them speak of how cold I had become, and feeling 
them again and again wipe the clammy drops from my fore- 
head. I know how that, in the silence that followed, they sat 
and waited, watching for the change of death, the signs of 
whose approach seemed already unmistakable. 

" Instead of dying, however, I fell into a quiet, restful, nat- 
ural sleep, and it was afternoon when I awakened. Then 
when I began to move slightly I was conscious of a peculiar 
freedom from the sense of exhaustion which usually followed 
such conditions, and as I was assisted back to a more natural 



280 Russell H. Conwell 

position in bed I was surprised at the thrill of strength which 
seemed upholding and sustaining me in a way that I could not 
then and cannot now explain. My dear, ever-watchful care- 
taker, Miss Smith, reminded me that I had eaten nothing so 
far that day, and asked if I thought I could take a little broth. 
4 Yes/ I said, * bring more than a little, for I am hungry/ 
More than an hour later I was awakened from another refresh- 
ing sleep by the ringing of the door-bell. I heard them say, 
4 Of course she cannot see any one to-day, she is too weak; if 
it is a caller for her, one of us will go down and explain.' 
4 But/ I said, * I am not weak. I am strangely strong. I al- 
most feel as if I could get up and dress if you would let me/ 
They were still protesting against such rashness, when a card 
was brought in and almost unwillingly handed to me. It bore 
the name of a young lady who, as a child several years before, 
had been an especial favorite of mine, but whom I had not 
seen for a long time. It required considerable persuasion on 
my part to be allowed to see her at all, and I fancy that, be- 
fore she was finally admitted, she was duly cautioned as to the 
length of her visit, etc. One of the indelible pictures on my 
memory is that of her bright face fairly aglow with youthful 
health and the simple happiness of living, as it appeared a 
moment later at the door. With swift, noiseless step she came 
around to the side of the bed where I w 7 as lying, and kneeling 
she released from her hands a bunch of delicate La France 
roses in order to take mine as she said: * Dear Miss May, I 
would have come before if I had known you were sick, but I 
did not know until Mr. Conwell prayed for you this morning.' 
1 Why, did he pray for me?' I asked. 4 Yes, indeed, so ear- 
nestly, it seemed as if he just could not give up the petition 
until he had the answer of your life! ' 

" She stayed only a few moments after that, but when she 
had gone I had the roses placed where I could see them; and 
as they seemed to repeat her message I told myself that I 
knew now why I was still there, and not only so, but why I 
felt so unaccountably strong when I might reasonably expect 
only the utmost exhaustion. I have never learned who carried 
the word of my critical condition to my pastor, but I have 
never doubted that it was the answer to his prayer that day 
which held me in life, or that God had some special work for 



Conwell in Prayer 281 

the life thus given back. Perhaps I should add, that previous 
to that time my attention had been called to a new system of 
treatment, and that every-day circumstances occurred which led 
to its trial. Since then, under this system my recovery has 
been very slow, it is true, but perhaps as rapid as could be ex- 
pected, considering * the pit from which I have been digged.' 
Still an invalid, I am looking forward to absolute restoration, 
to probably better health than I have ever known before in my 
life. Yet a new question arises : If God could, in answer to 
prayer, keep me in life when all the conditions of death seemed 
present, why could he not at once make me perfectly w r ell and 
strong without these long days of convalescence ? Would he 
have done so if I had used to the uttermost the strength that 
was given that day? Or are the lessons of these convalescent 
days needful? I have always held that God does for us only 
that which he gives us no means of doing for ourselves, but for 
the rest expects us to use the means he provides. Yet, as I 
look at it to-day, I wonder if there is not a repetition of that 
old-time history, ' He could do not many mighty works [in 
Nazareth] because of their unbelief.' " 




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CHAPTER XXIV 

" THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE " 

Conweli will come under the inexorable law — 

" Fading away like the stars of the morning, 
Losing their light in the glorious sun ; 
Thus will we pass from the earth and its toiling, 
Only remembered by what we have done." 

But what has he done that will live when he is no 
more? What is there that will be worth remembering 
when all minor details shall have been lost in obscurity? 
This is the answer : The fact that he incarnated, ex- 
emplified, and expounded the Christian ideal of love as the 
animating motive and sustaining power of human life. 
How shall people be led to take what they already see is 
valuable? We do not need to persuade men that Chris- 
tianity is the one and only true religion, The point is to 
induce men to take that which is presented to them and 
the full value of which they admit — salvation, Christ, 
righteousness, love. Christianity as a system of truth is 
stronger than ever before. The present need is for a re- 
incarnation that it may attain its proper place in the hearts 
of men. The Church has not the hold upon the world 
it should have. Conweli early perceived the truth, that 
the Gospel of our Lord knows of no reconciliation by the 
cross that does not begin with a reconciliation to the 



284 Russell H. Conwell 

cross. Being reconciled to God has a vaster meaning 
than being reconciled to the comfortable reception of cer- 
tain benefits from God's hand. It means an apprehension 
of the law of God's life as the law of the Christian's life. 
Constantine's vision of the flaming cross, whether a real 
experience, an optical illusion, or a legend of later growth, 
points to a great truth. The cross symbolizes what is 
most sacred in Christianity. It is not emblazoned on The 
Temple's dome, but it is erected in the hearts of the 
Templars. That which is so prominent in Scripture, 
namely, the efficiency of vicarious sacrifice, is recognized 
by historians in honoring the nation's heroes. One in- 
stance illustrative of this is found in an inscription on a 
stone erected by the citizens of Lexington in honor of 
their fellow-townsmen who fell on that famous April day 
in 1775: "The blood of these martyrs in the cause of 
God and their country was the cement of the union of 
these States, then colonies, and gave the spring to their 
spirit, firmness and resolution to their fellow-citizens." 
The suffering of the cross continues in the Father's heart 
until sin vanishes from the hearts of his children. Oh, 
to incarnate the cross in the lives of five thousand people 
and harness them to the machinery of redemption — who 
can measure the influence for good of such a life ! 

When one contemplates the possibilities for good which 
those mighty institutions in Philadelphia, of which Russell 
H. Conwell is the head, can and will exert in the next 
twenty-five years, he is appalled by the tremendous power 
they are likely to become. The hospital treats on an 
average 1,250 patients a month, which means 375,000 
in twenty-five years, allowing nothing for expansion. 



"The Greatest of These Is Love" 285 

There are approximately 120 lives saved a month, which 
means a saving cf lives endangered by accident and dis 
ease to the number of 36,000 in twenty-five years. Tem- 
ple College has reached and helped to a better educa- 
tion 50,000 students in the last thirteen years. Even if 
it should do nothing more than hold its own, at present 
8,000 in attendance, its influence upon the efficiency and 
character of the citizenship of Philadelphia will be some- 
thing incalculable. Grace Church reaches about 5,000 
people every Sunday, besides a Sunday-school of 1,200, 
and 450 in the various missions or branches of the church. 
With a number of members preaching the Gospel on 
wharves and public squares, visiting hospitals and the 
sick in their homes, encouraging the discouraged, throw 
ing Christian influence around the tempted and erring; 
with from 15 to 20 licentiates, 30 in the theological school 
of the college, 350 Sunday-school teachers in the Bible 
Training Class; with two home missionaries and two 
foreign missionaries supported by the church, their possi- 
ble influence for good is beyond computation, and will tell 
mightily on the redemption of Philadelphia in the next 
quarter of a century. The Orphanage will certainly exert 
a wide influence, and care for hundreds of orphan children 
in the years to come. What is the motive back of all 
these mighty enterprises^ We are afraid of power unless 
we know that it is under proper control and confined 
within proper channels. There were three steps in Christ's 
plan for saving a city. He looked at it; he wept over it; 
he died for it. Conwell has studied the needs of Phila 
delphia. Hence these various religious and benevolent 
enterprises. With tenderness of heart and sympathy be- 



286 Russell H. Conwell 

gotten of his own bitter experiences he wept over it. 
With a sublime faith and well-directed effort he is using 
up his life at a fearful rate in his efforts to apply the 
Gospel to the supreme needs of the sinful, the ignorant, 
the suffering, and the fatherless. 

" To move among the people on the common street ; 
to meet them in the market-place on equal terms ; to 
live among them not as saint or monk, but as a brother 
man with brother men; to serve God not with form 
or ritual, but in the free impulse of the soul; to bear 
the burden of society and relieve its needs ; to carry on 
its multitudinous activities in the city, social, com- 
mercial, political, and philanthropic — this is the religion 
of the Son of man, and the only fitness for heaven which 
has much reality in it. Travelers to God's last city, be 
thankful that you are alive ! Be thankful for the city 
at your doors and for the cKance to build its walls 
a little higher before you go. Pray for yet a little while 
to redeem the wasted years. And week by week as you 
go forth from worship, and day by day as you wake to face 
this great and needy world, learn to seek a city here, and 
in the service of its neediest citizen to find heaven." — 
Frances E. Willard, on Henry Drmnmond. 

" It is an eternal corner-stone from which they can be- 
gin to build themselves up again — that man in some sense 
or other worships heroes ; that we all of us reverence and 
must ever reverence great men : this is to me the living 
rock amid all rushings down whatsoever; the one fixed 
point in modern revolutionary history." The readers of 
this book are not asked to worship a hero, but are invited 
to become acquainted with a great man whose greatness 



"The Greatest of These Is Love" 287 

consists in the fact of his pouring out his life as a sacrifice 
to God in the service of man. If, as Carlyle declares, 
humanity is alternately climbing up and rushing down to 
a fixed point, and that fixed point a great man, what a re- 
bound for the ascent will the surging mass receive if the 
fixed point bear a striking resemblance to the Ideal, the 
Perfect One, toward whom it again begins to climb! 
" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto me." 

The center from which those mighty enterprises in 
Philadelphia for humanity have emanated is Conwell. 
The Temple is bounded by his thought, inspired by the 
motive which animates his life, and nourished by his 
heart's blood. No thinking man can keep in touch with 
the great social and industrial movements of this age and 
not feel that all classes of men need to be brought under 
the influence of forces which co-ordinate rather than disin- 
tegrate; of policies which will enable the different classes 
to perceive their mutual interdependence upon each other. 
The world needs preaching which transforms man's beliefs, 
and cures him of that bane of modern life — an inordinate 
assertion of the self principle. 

True-hearted reader, you may never be the leading 
spirit in rearing a great temple which will shelter thou- 
sands of worshipers ; but one fact is true of you, and its 
responsibility you cannot escape : 

" We are building in sorrow or joy 
A temple the world may not see: 
Which time cannot mar nor destroy — 
Building for eternity." 

Conformity to the same great principles which have 



288 Russell H. Con well 

enabled those poor working people in Philadelphia to build 
a $250,000 temple will make any temple a credit to the 
builder and an honor to God. 

What are the results of a life in which the animating 
motive is love, as we should expect to find them in the 
history of Mr. Conwell and his church? It has led Mr. 
Conwell to give away wisely, and where most needed, his 
lecture fees, the royalty on his books, and all of his salary 
except the few hundred dollars necessary for the support 
of his family in modest comfort. He is poor in this 
world's goods. He has lately declined an offer of $39,- 
000 for a six-months' lecture trip in Australia, with the 
promise of every comfort afforded by modern means of 
conveyance. His hours of toil, many days, are nearly 
equal to the time it takes the earth to make one complete 
revolution around the sun, and his labors prodigious. It 
has led to a life of sympathy, encouragement, and burden- 
bearing that cannot be described in words. What has it 
done for Grace Church? Here again the mere mention 
of dollars given, buildings erected, the ignorant taught, 
the helpless befriended, lives prolonged, hearts comforted, 
souls saved, altogether give but a faint idea of the results 
accomplished. You must sit in The Temple and breathe 
the atmosphere of the place; receive a welcome which 
only a Christian hospitality can give ; ask the prayers of 
a consecrated people, and feel your life borne up before 
the throne of God by those who know how to approach the 
Father's mercy-seat; go down into the waters of baptism 
and feel a thrill of ineffable joy as in those strong arms 
which combine strength and tenderness you are " buried 
with Christ by baptism into death," and raised again to a 



"The Greatest of These Is Love" 289 

new life on the resurrection side of the tomb ; experience 
that throb of inspiration akin to " sweetened lightning" 
that seizes hold of the soul when under the mesmeric spell 
of a true orator; see Mr. Conwell kneel by your sick-bed 
when over his face there comes an expression of sacred 
reverence and his strong voice modulates to a tone for 
refined delicacy compared to which you have heard nothing 
since your own mother whispered in vanishing breath, 
" Meet me in heaven " ; and then put into words if you 
can the influence of Grace Baptist Church and, its pastor 
on the destiny of those thronging multitudes. 

There are a few stepping-stones which may assist us to 
the desired elevation. We will ascend by the assistance 
of the editor of The True Philadelphia^, : 



"HOW A WHOLE CONGREGATION PREACHED A 

SERMON. 

" In the first place the day was one which many ministers 
would dread. It had snowed during the night, and about 
church-time threatened to turn into rain — a Sunday which 
would give an excuse even to a sincere Christian to stay at 
home. Then it was the day after Christmas, and the reaction 
from the gayety of the preceding day had left every one dull 
and sleepy. 

" On such a day, the 26th of December, 1897, there assembled 
in The Temple the congregation which was to preach one of 
the most impressive sermons ever heard in an auditorium 
noted for the eloquent addresses delivered therein. If to any 
one had occurred the idea "that a whole congregation might 
preach a sermon, that person would never have selected last 
Sunday nor that particular congregation to deliver it. For a 
week past the greater number of the congregation had been en- 
gaged night and day in carrying on a great Christmas fair; 



290 Russell H. Conwell 

they had sacrificed time, money, and energy in a philanthropic 
effort to aid the Temple College. Many had been serving 
at the fair tables until a late hour of the preceding evening, 
giving up part of their Christmas day to the fair. And now 
came Sunday with its cares and duties for many of these same 
workers. Almost every one would have said that congregation 
needed a strong, encouraging sermon preached to them ; few 
individuals could have been picked out who felt in the preach- 
ing spirit, and it would seem almost nonsense to expect all of 
those present to take part in a sermon. 

" Christmas, with its joys and pleasures, had come to the 
Board of Trustees of the Grace Baptist Church fraught with 
responsibility and anxiety. On Christmas eve Santa Claus 
reversed his usual procedure, and brought to the trustees the 
information of a church note of two thousand dollars due and 
payable Monday morning. Provision had long since been 
made for renewing this note, and the trustees had given it no 
great concern, but late on Christmas eve came the news that 
the note could not be renewed, and payment was demanded at 
once. Two thousand dollars in cash must be ready Monday 
morning. The trustees were caught unprepared. There was 
nothing to be done but appeal to the people. Such was the 
occasion for the congregational sermon. 

" The text, if such this unusual sermon could be said to have, 
might be found in a few words spoken by Mr. Conwell at the 
opening of the service. ' You have made gifts to your chil- 
dren, your relatives, and your friends; now make one to 
Christ's cause. Give as much to the Lord at this Christmas 
time as you did to one of your own family.' And then began 
the sermon. It was a most simple thing. To an outsider it 
might appear dry and monotonous. It consisted merely in the 
reading of certain names followed by certain figures of sums 
of money payable within one week. But never did lists of 
names contain so much life, never were columns of figures so 
full of feeling, never perhaps did arithmetical totals represent 
so great a sum of sacrifice. 

" As a great preacher often will recount a tale to point a 
moral, so each one of these names and gifts had its little story 
to tell, its simple moral to teach to the others in the congrega- 
tion. Members understood just what a sacrifice the gifts ex- 



"The Greatest of These Is Love" 291 

pressed. How many of the gifts came from Christmas money, 
otherwise destined for investment in innocent pleasures and 
necessary comforts; how this person, in spite of financial re- 
verses, still had something left for Christ's cause; how that 
one amidst the demands of family needs had his share ready; 
and another out of his plenty could not afford to forget the 
Kingdom of God — all this and much more was known and re- 
alized by the members as they sat and listened to the simple 
sermon preached by the great body of plain people of the con- 
gregation. It was all over in a few minutes. But there was 
nothing more to be said or done. There was no place for a 
pulpit sermon after such an eloquent sermon of acts. The 
benediction was pronounced upon a people affected more pro- 
foundly than any spoken words could have influenced them. 
It was a beautiful illustration of the Christ-spirit. It is need- 
less to say that by evening some $2,200 had been pledged for 
immediate payment, and of that amount $1,300 was received 
in cash on Sunday. 

" The Financial Secretary of the College received a private 
letter from one of the members at The Temple, last week, 
which shows why the church at The Temple prospers, and why 
all its many enterprises are successful. We give here an ex- 
tract from it. We withhold the name, because the writer did 
not dream the editor would see it, and certainly would feel he 
must object to its publication if he were to be directly con- 
sulted. But he will be glad to know it will do good, we feel 
sure. 

" c Enclosed find a little memorandum book in w r hich, since 
reconsecrating myself, when our daughter was given back to 
us, has been kept my account with him. 

" ' I have tried to keep it accurately and conscientiously, and 
where you see the amount given to him seems to be in excess 
of ten per cent, it is when I have given something, and was 
not quite sure the value placed upon it was correct; but even 
if I was, sister, it pays to have a balance in the bank of God. 
I am starting a new year — my seventh in The Temple ; it may 
be my last; it must be full of good works, and all my efforts 
shall be consecrated for God this year/ 

" Accompanying the letter was a little memorandum book, 
with entries made each week." 



292 Russell H. Conwell 

The problem of a religious life is to live in helpful con- 
tact with and guarded separation from the world; u To 
visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction, and to 
keep himself unspotted from the world." One of the 
supreme tests of a Christian is his ability or power to go 
into the midst of corruption and remain uncontaminated. 
It is the crying need of the hour. To give money for 
humanity and withhold self from humanity is half a farce. 
The monastic conception of religion, so highly lauded 
during the Middle Ages, is a declaration of weakness and 
altogether foreign to the ideals of the Son of man. Christ 
did not stay in heaven and send a check. The most 
beautiful lives of this or any other age are those that go 
into the midst of sin with health, purity, and saving power. 
What is the attitude of the Templars toward this burning 
question? Hear their pastor speak for them : 

"We are often criticised as a church by persons who do not 
understand the purposes or spirit of our work. They say : 
c You have a great many entertainments and socials, and the 
church is in danger of going over to the world. The church 
is to keep itself separate from the world.' Ah, yes; the old 
hermits went away and hid themselves in the rocks and caves 
and lived on the scantiest food, and ' kept away from the 
world/ They were separate from the world. They were in 
no danger of ' going over to the world. ' They had hidden 
themselves far away from man. And so it is in some churches 
where in coldness and forgetfulness of Christ's purpose, of 
Christ's sacrifice, and the purpose for which the church was 
instituted, they withdraw themselves so far from the world that 
they cannot save a drowning man when he is in sight; they 
cannot reach down to him, the distance is too great — the life- 
line is too short. Where are the unchurched masses of Phila- 
delphia to-day? Why are they not in the churches at this 
hour? Because the church is so far away. The difference 



"The Greatest of These Is Love' 3 293 

that is found between the church which saves and that which 
does not is found in the fact that the latter holds to the Phari- 
saical profession that the church must keep itself aloof from 
the people — yes, from the drowning thousands who are going 
down to everlasting ruin — to be forever lost. The danger is 
not now so much in going over to the world, as in going away 
from it — away from the world which Jesus died to save — the 
world which his church should lead to him." — Conwell, 
" Ambassadors for Christ" 

If a certain preacher by the name of Jonah who had so 
much of a certain kind of religion as to find fault with 
God for saving " Nineveh, that great city, wherein are 
more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern 
between their right hand and their left," and declared, " I 
do well to be angry even unto death," because after mak- 
ing a fool of himself once he valued his reputation more 
than one hundred and twenty thousand souls ; if Jonah 
could have been a member of The Temple congregation he 
would have learned five lessons which would have saved 
him a very unpleasant experience, and saved the Bible 
from many a godless slur in consequence of its faithful 
revelation of the heart of a hypocritical professor of re- 
ligion; namely, that the way to appreciate a good thing is 
to give it away; that true religion means helpful contact 
with and not frigid isolation from a wicked city; that no 
man, even though he be a preacher, can refuse to obey 
God's voice and not suffer for it; that God is a God of 
mercy and "has no pleasure in the death of the wicked " ; 
and that the true crown of rejoicing is not "a gourd, that 
it might be a shadow over his head," but a redeemed city. 

At the golden-year reception, the Rev. John Love, Jr., 
related the following incident : 



294 Russell H. Conwell 

11 A conductor on a horse-car was at one time addressed by 
Mr. Conwell concerning his soul; the conductor told him that 
some one might be watching, he might be reported for inatten- 
tion to his duties, and thus lose his place. Mr. Conwell asked 
him where he dined, and then, after getting a reply, said he 
would be there. And this noble brother went to that street- 
car stable, and, as that man ate his dinner, preached to him the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder then that the man 
was converted, convinced that there was reality in that relig- 
ion? The spirit of consecration, friends, has marked the pri- 
vate and public ministerial career of our brother." 

Two young men of the world attended Grace Church 
occasionally in company with their young lady friends. 
One evening the young folks fell to discussing Conwell. 
The young ladies declared that their pastor was animated 
by the best of motives, but the converts to the beer-keg 
criticism declared, " Conwell is like all the rest of them — 
he is in it for the almighty dollar." It was of no use for 
two simple Christian-hearted girls to argue with omnis- 
cience, and the question was dropped. One stormy win- 
ter's night, as these two young men reeled out of a saloon 
at twelve o'clock, they heard a voice saying: 

" My dear child, why did you not tell me before that you 
were in need — you know that I would not let you suffer? " 

" That's Conwell/' said one of the young fellows. 

"Nah! get out," replied his companion; "what's the 
matter with you? " 

"I tell you that was Conwell' s voice; let's follow him 
up." 

Through the blinding snow they could distinguish the 
tall, masculine form of the pastor of Grace Church with a 
large basket on one arm and leading a little girl by the 
hand. Keeping a sufficient distance to avoid recognition, 



"The Greatest of These Is Love" 295 

the young men followed to a home of need the man whose 
spoken word in the great Temple had failed to lead them 
to believe in him who "went about doing good/' but 
whose ministry to a needy family at midnight brought the 
tears of sincere repentance and a cry for mercy. Those 
young men became consistent members of Grace Church, 
and vie with others in devotion to their pastor. 

What matters it that enemies sometimes arise, that un- 
kind criticisms fall from lips that were set apart to declare 
good news? Conwell 's reputation is secure. 'We have 
every reason to believe that his work will abide. He 
needs no word of commendation from the author of this 
book; but needed or not, he joins his testimony with that 
of a great and good man of national reputation who said, 
"I love Conwell for the enemies he has made," and with 
the beloved Deacon Chipman, of Boston, just gone to his 
heavenly reward, who knew Conwell from the day he 
picked him up on the streets of Boston a runaway boy of 
fourteen years, and who declared to the author, " I have 
known Conwell forty-two years, and I love him better 
every year I know him." 

But as the real test of greatness is humility, we must 
ask what Conwell has to say of himself : " You don't know 
what a struggle my life is. Only God and my own heart 
know how far short I come of what I ought to be, and how 
often I mar the use that he would make of me even when 
I would serve him. " So he spoke to a friend in private 
conversation. 

Upon another occasion he said : " I feel very humble to- 
day and yet greatly rejoiced. I have just been thinking 
anew what very weak and foolish instruments God can 



296 Russell H. Conwell 

make use of to do his work. After all, it isn't the in- 
strument — it is just the power of God himself." 

Mr. Conwell's ideal life is set forth in the following 
peroration to a sermon on "The Contribution Box" : 

"The happiest church, the noblest life, the sweetest Chris- 
tianity, the loveliest Christian experience, is in giving to prac- 
tical Christian help; not to oratory, not to music, not to fancy, 
not to large buildings; but to seeing the widow stop her tears, 
to seeing the orphan clothed, to seeing the sick become healthy, 
to seeing the weak become better, to hearing the angels of God 
singing often over sinners who have turned in repentance unto 
Christ." 



"And there was delivered unto him the book of the 
prophet Esaias* And when he had opened the book, he 
found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord 
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gos- 
pel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captive, and the recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord* And he closed the 
book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. 
And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were 
fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This 
day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears*" 



"ACRES OF DIAMONDS" 

Substance of Mr. Conwell's Lecture 
AND 

"LET THERE BE LIGHT" 

An Oration 



INTROT>VCTORY NOTE 



Since " ACRES OF DIAMONDS/' Mr. Conwell' s great- 
est book, has gone out of print, there have been numerous and 
urgent calls for the publication of his lecture of the same 
title. In the next following pages an attempt is made, with 
Mr. Conwell' s permission, to present the substance of this 
famous lecture, and to give it as far as possible in his own 
words. To those who have not heard this masterpiece of the 
lecturer given in his own unique and powerful fashion, it is 
only just to say that some of the best hits and most striking 
illustrations are omitted. 

In the summer of 1876, Mr. Conwell — then known as 
Colonel Conwell — delivered the commencement oration at 
Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, an institution often 
mentioned in the foregoing pages, and most interestingly as- 
sociated with his childhood and youth. It was a notable oc- 
casion, and Colonel Conwell* s oration is herewith reproduced, 
as a brilliant specimen of his earlier style. 



SUBSTANCE OF MR. CONWELL'S LECTURE, 
" ACRES OF DIAMONDS" 



To secure wealth is an honorable ambition, and is one 
of the great tests of a person's usefulness to others. 
Money is power. Every good man and woman ought to 
strive for power, and to do good with it when obtained. 
Tens of thousands of men and women get rich honestly. 
But they are often accused by an envious, lazy crowd of 
unsuccessful persons of being dishonest and oppressive. I 
say, Get rich ! get rich ! But get. money honestly, or it will 
be a withering curse. 

The person who has a great deal to sell will get much 
money. He who can confer great benefit is entitled to 
great profit. He who offers pure diamonds in the market 
will get wealth in return naturally and honorably. Nearly 
every man and every woman has some talent, some posses- 
sion, some valuable gift which the world needs. God has 
given each many acres of diamonds for which the world 
anxiously awaits. He that gives the most is entitled to 
the most. He who can do the most good, or give the 
most happiness, should be and is the richest man. The 
way to get rich is to have something to sell which people 
want. The way to obtain the good things you desire is to 
have something equally valuable to exchange for them. 



300 Russell H. Conwell 

We all have riches. The all-important question is, Where 
are they? We can get one step nearer the solution of the 
difficult problem, and safely say, At home ! Not away off 
at the Moon Mountains; not on Palestine's shores; not on 
Spain's inhospitable promontories ; but at home. Your 
wealth is close to the spot where you sit to read these 
pages; perhaps within your fingers' reach. It may be at 
the shop, or in the store, in your attic, cellar, or back yard. 
But not far from you now is all the wealth your heart 
should desire, and more than you will ever need. Do you 
mean money and property? Yes. That is just what I 
mean. It requires but little knowledge of the experience 
of successful men to see that thousands of other men had 
the same opportunity to acquire wealth that they had. 

Among the millionaires who in 1886 held their heads 
above the usual current of society in New York, Philadel- 
phia, and Boston, I find that at least ninety -four out of 
every one hundred found their first fortune in some hum- 
ble place at home. Here are the foundations of wealth : 
rats, dogs, fence-posts, birds' eggs, blacking, cheese, whey, 
apple-grafts, limestone, boiling spring, cooking, old bones, 
binding old files of papers, extract of lilacs and roses, plas- 
ter of hemlock tar, ice-house, cement, reapers, soup-ladle, 
hair-pins, watch-case, dried apples, fancy stock, hens' eggs, 
plows, shoe-nails, delivery of groceries, oil lamps, brick, 
weaving, ventilation, locks, carpet yarn, gossamers, faucets, 
window glass, books, grist-mill, ferry-boats, cog-wheels, 
jack-knife, eye-glass, buttons, teeth filing, traps, music, 
tinware, wallpaper, silk-worms, street-cars, spices, clothes- 
pins, and fly-traps. One of the richest men in Massachu- 
setts told me in 1879 that he made his fortune watching 



"Acres of Diamonds" 301 

his wife try on her ill-fitting bonnet. It led him to the 
manufacture of bonnet frames. A young lady in New 
Britain, Conn., improvised a button fastener for her dress, 
which, when applied to the manufacture of sleeve-buttons 
at Attleboro, Mass. , led to the wealth of herself and hus- 
band a few years later. Your riches are within your pres- 
ent reach. 

Professor Agassiz, it is said, was greatly amused over 
an anecdote of a Pennsylvania farmer. The farmer owned 
many hundred acres of unprofitable rocks and woods, and 
concluded to get into a more profitable position. His 
cousin was collecting coal oil, and agreed to employ the 
famer if he would study up the whole process. So the 
agriculturist devoted himself to the study of mineralogy, 
coal measures, and coal-oil deposits. He studied long and 
hard. He experimented and consulted wise men. Then 
when sufficiently skilled he sold his farm for a few hun- 
dred dollars and went into the coal oil business two hun- 
dred miles away. He had been gone but a few weeks 
from his old farm before his successor discovered, at a place 
where the cattle drank, a wonderful flood of coal oil, which 
the previous owner had ignorantly and unsuccessfully tried 
to drain off. The oil wells on that farm have since made 
many men and women wealthy. The former owner is still 
poor. 

A professor of mineralogy in Massachusetts inherited 
the homestead, and sold it to obtain funds to go prospect- 
ing for silver in Wisconsin. The farm he sold held a val- 
uable silver mine, which was discovered first in plain sight 
of a rock at the end of the dooryard wall. The rich Ne- 
vada gold and silver mine was owned and claimed by a 



302 Russell H. Conwell 

man who sold out for $42 to get money to pay his passage 
to the Dutch Flat mines. Men are continually becoming 
rich out of the trifles which others throw away. 

If you have anything people want, they will pay you for 
it. The more they need it the more they will pay you 
for it. Find out, then, the world's need and earnestly en- 
deavor to supply that need. That is the sure road to 
wealth. Be a benefactor. Be a blessing. Make this 
world happier. Make men and women better. If you can 
do that you ought to be rich, and can be in all that can 
make you happy. The first step in the life of a benefactor 
is to find out what people need. A. T. Stewart, the mil- 
lionaire merchant, said, in a speech in Brooklyn in 1870, 
that he never invested his money until he was very sure 
what his customers would need. Such a business tact will 
enrich any one. 

First study yourself. There is no better criterion of 
the needs of the human race than your own. Look back 
along your experience and see where you felt the bitter- 
ness of some unsupplied need. Thousands are coming 
along the same path somewhere. They now need what 
you then suffered to possess. Supply that need. You 
cannot succeed in acquiring wealth if you try to supply a 
want you have never felt or witnessed. A far-away pos- 
sible w r ish is too indefinite to call for actual self-sacrifice 
and for consecrated work. The man must work for some- 
thing he understands. He must himself appreciate the 
demands. A railroad to the moon would not pay. The 
safest business is always connected with man's prime 
necessities. Mankind must eat. They must keep warm. 
They must have dwellings. From these fundamental 



"Acres of Diamonds" 303 

necessities of life the business man must depart only with 
caution. Civilized wants vary and fashions change, and no 
man can safely cater to a civilization higher than his own. 

A man whose toys have become known to the farthest 
extent of civilization began to manufacture them with his 
pen-knife. When he decided to make that his business 
he was very poor. But he called his boy and girl to his 
side and discussed the question with them. He made toys 
under their direction and sought to meet their tastes. 
When he succeeded in making one which was especially 
pleasing to one of them he made copies of that for sale. 
It is impossible for a hundred factories to supply the de- 
mand for such toys. No want of growing humanity is 
fully satisfied. All that has been done can be improved 
upon. Every day's experience will teach where improve- 
ment is most needed. 

Men who worry themselves into an early grave chasing 
fickle fortune never catch it ; the best way is to call it, 
have something to give. The first great requisite of suc- 
cess is that you shall be a real, true man or woman. You 
must have intrinsic worth. 

In the composition of true manhood or true womanhood 
there are three elements. The first one is a pure, flawless 
moral character — a clean, undeviating sense of honor which 
is truth and goodness in perfect combination. The second 
is a real, abiding, earnest love for your fellow-man. A 
positive love for others and for human beings as a part of 
our own family is a necessity to the highest and surest 
success. A third qualification is education. By this term 
I mean the acquisition of true common sense. The highest 
and most vital education is helpfulness trained to the 



304 Russell H. Conwell 

highest degree of efficiency. To have the power to help 
is to possess abiding wealth and worth. The ability to 
give out good is the foundation of all success. A noble 
and full consecration of all your talents to the welfare of 
others is the surest course to your personal success. The 
honest single purpose to make the world better is the be- 
ginner's great need. Let money, property, fame all stand 
aside when the great king of motives comes in. If human- 
ity owns you, as in a measure it does, how would it invest 
your life so as to get the largest income from it ? Where 
would wise and good men put you to obtain from your 
capabilities the greatest possible good to their kind? 
Find out that, and then put yourself there. Let self sink, 
and the happiness of others be the whole ambition of your 
life. One great overmastering motive, rising into an irre- 
sistible impulse, should control every present consideration 
and override every present gratification. That should be 
the greatest good of humanity. He who is guided by that 
motive and by good sense concerning his own ability can- 
not fail. He never did fail. He never will fail. It is 
the same idea reappearing. What does the world need? 
What can I best do to supply that need ? Unsatisfied hu- 
manity, moved by the divine desire for perfection, is shak- 
ing the earth with the thunder of its demands for more 
Priestleys, Peels, Scotts, Miltons, Dickenses, Richelieus, 
Macaulays, Davys, Erskines, Ericssons, Mansfields, Wash- 
ington, Websters, Lincolns, Sumners, Motts, Mitchells, 
Gladstones, and Mark Twains. No man can say he is not 
needed. No man can say there is no opportunity for him 
to secure wealth. 

Nine out of every ten merchants are too selfish to take 



"Acres of Diamonds" 305 

care of themselves. They open a store to supply them- 
selves only. Practically they have but one customer, and 
he is not worthy of trust. No man can make a living by 
catering entirely to one customer. That is the reason why 
only five in every hundred merchants keep out of bank- 
ruptcy. More people go into the mercantile life who 
know nothing about it in theory, and learn nothing by ex- 
perience, than enter ignorantly all the trades or other pro- 
fessions together. A merchant has no right to be poor 
except when he begins trade. There is something wrong 
about the tradesman who is poor. He is either foolish or 
dishonest, and in business these are often synonymous 
terms. The man or woman who would be successful in 
trade must then think of himself last. He must be a 
faithful, devoted servant of his fellow-beings. Yet only 
one in twenty thinks of that, and so only one in twenty 
gets rich. Making " corners " is rascally gambling with 
other people's money. When men learn the great truth 
that whole-souled, generous, wise unselfishness is the 
surest road to personal success, the courts of chancery will 
have little to do. The merchant who does not sincerely 
endeavor to enrich his customers is breaking the laws of 
morals and of trade. Here are two necessary rules : 
first, find what people need; second, supply them at 
cheaper rates or with better goods than they have ever 
known, or in some way make it really profitable for them 
to come to your store. Don't tell the people so; for gen- 
erations of liars have said the same thing and tried to 
swindle their deluded patrons. But make it a fact which 
the community can truly state of you, that people who 
trade with you are given dollars they could not get at any 



306 Russell H. Conwell 

or few other places. The true merchant will take a gen- 
erous interest in his customers, and advise or warn them 
as carefully as he would his own family, and truly aid them 
in selecting and purchasing such things as they really need. 
You must know what people need before you purchase. 
You must purchase low that you may sell low. The 
financial ability of your customers must be fully known to 
you. All this information will come to you from all the 
people who feel you are a faithful friend. A. T. Stewart 
as a boy lost 87 cents of his $1.50 because he purchased 
some thread and buttons to sell which people would not 
buy. That taught him the secret of mercantile success. 
After that he began again by going around to the doors 
and finding out what the housewives wanted. Then he 
safely invested the few cents left to supply a known de- 
mand. When one gives to his sole self or even to the cir- 
cle of his own family what was meant for mankind, he does 
himself a wrong and falls short of the greatness he might 
have reached. " Be not deceived/' " Be not overcome of 
evil," are divine precepts, and consequently surcharged with 
good common sense. It is wicked to let an evil-disposed 
person swindle you. It is a great wrong to let any man 
profit by lying or dishonesty. Extravagance in the em- 
ployment of clerks or in useless decorations is public 
notice tb°t the owner of the store intends to take some 
unfair advantage of his customers. Not one in ten thou- 
sand really dishonest men get possession of riches, and 
when they do the pain and misery which surely follow 
make their life a thousand times more unhappy than a state 
of poverty. Money kept which is not ours burns the palm, 
sears the brain, and shrivels the heart. Pity, pity the 



" Acres of Diamonds " 307 

poor soul that is holding on to burning bars of hell-heated 
gold ! A withering curse goes with him often to the sec- 
ond generation. I think George Peabody's life presents 
a tolerably clear idea of the principles which insure mer- 
cantile success. He stoutly declared that he "would not 
sell any man an article which would do him harm." No 
man ever made money by smoking as a profession. He 
said that " Any business which is not a benefit to the com- 
munity in which it is placed must fail if it depends on it 
for support. " 

A generous, philanthropic spirit and intention is the first 
prerequisite of the greatest, best success in mercantile 
life. To be vastly rich is a good thing; but to be greatly 
loved is better. Mr. A. T. Stewart told in a speech con- 
cerning the Paris Exposition in 1868 this anecdote of Mr. 
John Jacob Astor : Mr. Astor had a mortgage on a milli- 
nery store, and the proprietor could not pay the interest. 
Hence Mr. Astor foreclosed the mortgage and took the 
stock. To the surprise of his neighbors, Mr. Astor went 
into partnership with the man who had failed and contin- 
ued the business with no added capital. Every one ac- 
quainted with the circumstances said that Mr. Astor had 
somehow been deceived. But he went out and sat down 
on a bench in the square. His quick eye carefully noted 
the color and shape of a bonnet or hat on every well- 
dressed lady, and before the lady who walked by him was 
out of sight, John Jacob Astor knew all an observer could 
know of that bonnet. He went to the store and insisted 
that they should make a bonnet or hat answering to his 
description and put it in the show window. So he kept 
watching and directing until the window presented such 



308 Russell H. Conwell 

an attractive display as to draw crowds of ladies to the 
sight. His store paid after the first month, and the suc- 
cessors, acting on his advice, became the wealthiest milli- 
nery firm in the world. He adopted the wise but unusual 
plan of first finding out what the ladies liked for bonnets 
before he wasted material or drove away custom in wild 
experiments. John Jacob Astor gave thousands of people 
employment by means of which many more thousands were 
fed. His capital built hundreds of happy homes, and his 
loans helped on to completion many important public im- 
provements. Reckless speculation, as it is known to-day, 
had no attraction for him. Like every other true merchant, 
he made two blades to grow upon a spot of ground where 
only one grew before, and was a benefactor. He made no 
corners in wheat to starve the poor. He made no pur- 
chases on margins at the Stock Exchange. He did not 
raise the price of gold to ruin his country. There was no 
" Black Friday " in his stock market. Young men say 
that such a life was possible eighty years ago and that it is 
not possible now. The statement will not need refutation 
in print if the speaker lives in Boston, Albany, New York, 
Philadelphia, Chicago, Buffalo, New Orleans, Milwaukee, 
St. Paul, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, or Pittsburg. 
Noble exceptions of the same kind of success can be seen 
any day in the history of living men who walk their streets 
to-day. There is scarcely a country village but can con- 
tradict that statement by the prosperity of public-spirited 
men. It is lucky to have just the goods people want when 
they call. Foresight secures that luck. It is lucky to 
have goods of such a low price that people can afford to 
buy them. That luck is found in purchasing. It is lucky 



"Acres of Diamonds " 309 

to have unquestioned credit. That luck comes from long- 
standing fidelity in keeping one's promises. It is lucky 
to have a store located conveniently for the public. That 
is luck that comes from a close scrutiny of people's needs. 
It is lucky to have trustworthy employees. That luck is 
but the result of the knowledge of men. It is lucky to be 
a benevolent Christian man in spirit and life. But in that 
matter almost any reader may be as lucky as John Wana- 
maker or Johns Hopkins. 

The study of American biography shows the most won- 
derful influence of country life when we notice the native 
places of the great men whose names adorn our rolls. A 
conservative gentleman engaged in the census bureau at 
Washington, whose life has been devoted to statistics, told 
me in 1886 that it would be safe for me to say that ninety- 
three per cent of the active business in any of our large 
cities was in the hands of farmers' sons. He accounted 
for it by saying that the boys were, of course, more robust 
and were more willing to take a low place and work up on 
their merits; but I cannot believe that those same men 
would have been poor at home. Hundreds of thousands 
of farmers' sons have left a profitable farm and lived in pov- 
erty in the cities. Like Ali Hafed, they have left fields 
where " acres of diamonds " lie undiscovered, and gone away 
into a strange land to die of starvation. [See the story of 
Ali Hafed, p. 97.] 

Good, homely sense is the first consideration in the 
make-up of a man who is to be a wealthy farmer. Indus- 
try is a prime quality and cannot be left out of account, 
but many farmers are kept poor by working too hard. 
They put labor into useless places or do their work the 



310 Russell H. Gonwell 

hardest way. To be wise enough to work easy is a rare 
but valuable acquisition. Nine-tenths of all the farmers 
now in the United States and Canada gamble with their 
farms. They plant on a venture. They sow wheat or rye 
or barley or corn in a kind of betting mood, not knowing 
whether the crop they are to produce will sell or not. 
Some plant potatoes or corn or rice or wheat because their 
great-grandfathers did, and mourn because there is no 
money to be made now in agriculture. Some run wildly 
into wasteful experiments in fanciful crops or breeds of 
animals, and do not know exactly what they do intend to 
produce. Every ordinary farmer is obtaining, as near as 
can be safely estimated, only one-third of the income from 
his acres which he might obtain with the same labor. 

A self-made man ! To be such a man is more than to 
make a locomotive. Such a man was Elias Howe, Jr. 
His life was as romantic as the heroic records of knights 
and adventurers in feudal days. The suffering of shame 
and poverty and scorn ; the repeated failures when almost 
touching success ; the sewing-machine perfected, and no 
friend or money to put it into the market ; his wife dying 
of exposure and the results of dire need ; the destitution, 
the persecution, the attempted robbery, the late triumph, 
are but the common experience of great inventors and great 
men. The school of want and the discipline of bitter hours 
of failure and suspense are better than academy or college 
in the making of strong men. To see a great need and to 
determine to supply it is indicative of a heroic spirit, and 
the more keenly one appreciates the wants of the people 
the stronger will be his incentive to solve the mechanical 
or chemical problem. To the world's wants there can be 



" Acres of Diamonds " 311 

no possible Umite. Hence there will always be a demand 
for inventors. They will be patient, care-taking, diligent, 
sharp men and women, the discipline of whose minds has 
been the result of determinedly close observation. They 
will see things other persons do not notice, and have more 
hardy patience in working out their thoughts. They will 
find much to study in their own homes, in their own 
wants, and in their daily occupations. They will strive to 
do everything better than it is now done, and will be gen- 
erous in their impulses and self-sacrificing in their enter- 
prises. The inventor who will own banks and railways by 
and by may be now a newsboy like Edison or a school- 
teacher like Eli Whitney. 

Thomas A. Edison was poor, had little school life, knew 
nothing of college training or the discipline of a scientific 
school. A self-made man ! Consequently, a prince among 
his fellows. Education is generally a great gain, and might 
have been so to him. Yet it also might have smothered 
his chief reliance for success. Getting an education as he 
obtained it, by using economically hours between hard 
tasks and out of his business, makes strong, self-reliant 
natures. When he tried to hatch a brood of chickens by 
placing himself over the hen's nest with three weeks' ra- 
tions of bread and butter stowed away in the hay, he 
learned by experience that, while his theory of heat was 
all right, his method was impracticable. A patent mother 
was better. Even the old hen had to step aside and let 
her young be hatched by a Yankee oven. Such truths, 
learned by hard experience, could never be forgotten. 
When he arrived in New York, a penniless Bohemian, in 
1870, at twenty- three years of age, he was by profession a 



312 Russell H. Conwell 

telegraph operator, and by occupation a dabbler in a hun- 
dred different schemes for the improvement of all kinds of 
mechanism. In New York he improved the brokers' tele- 
graph by inventing a gold-printer, and there the other side 
of the inventor's life seems to have been impressed upon 
him. He found that such curious instruments and com- 
plicated playthings were not profitable. He must make 
something which men needed. A patent for making a 
chimney draw the wrong way would have no sale. But a 
gold-printer was essential to accurate business reports. 
Commerce wanted the quadruplex system of telegraphy, 
the telephone, the phonograph, the megaphone, and the 
electric light. He assiduously and with almost painful 
care kept himself at the task of answering these imperative 
calls. His life and success is a confirmation strong of the 
theory advanced all along through these pages that to be 
great, wealthy, or successful the first qualification is a 
heart large enough to feel the general or individual need 
of humanity. Now, if a corporation feel a need which 
they have no means of supplying, they go to Mr. Edison 
and tell him their wants. That want leads to experiment, 
and that to wealth for both parties. 

How strangely uncertain and unaccountable, at first, 
seem all the records of human greatness ! But there are, 
after all, certain principles adhered to in each case, and 
some general rules which all of them follow to success. 
Those who would like to be the great inventors of the 
future cannot expect success along any other line. It is 
all included in the Norwegian precept, " Give thyself 
wholly to thy fellow-men; they will give thee back soon 
enough." It ever reminds the student of Providence of 



" Acres of Diamonds ,J 313 

the words of Christ, " He that would be great among you 
let him be your servant." Surely he that can serve the 
best is the noblest man. 

Again let me say that the field for future invention is 
greater now than it has ever been, and no man needs to go 
beyond his own home to find out what the world needs. 
Its revelations will be made to the studious, and the past 
improvements are only the mother-thoughts, each of which, 
fish-like, breeds other helpful ideas by the million. Bless- 
ings to others and the wealth for oneself are in 'this work 
for a multitude of people. 

Soon in the progress of discovery we shall ride upon the 
clouds. We shall decide by a popular vote what kind of 
weather the Government shall furnish us. We shall take 
to pieces the human body and set it up again in order. 
Soon we shall mix up potatoes, corn, and wheat from the 
original mineral sources and save the planting. Soon we 
will telegraph on rays of light. Soon we shall communi- 
cate with the peopled stars. Soon we shall destroy the 
bacteria or disease germs which float in the air or reside 
in the water. Soon we shall understand the relation of 
spirit to the material and read the plan of the universe. 
Soon we shall read each other's thoughts and will by in- 
fallible instinct. 

The Christian world despises now most sincerely the 
regiments that spend their powder and skill firing the shot 
into each other which both should be sending into the 
common enemy. While crime, vice, and terrible sins, 
private and public, local and national, remain unabated, it 
is terribly treasonable to occupy time or money in trying 
to overturn any institution which teaches morality and a 



314 Russell H. Conwell 

belief in the great Captain of Salvation. Persuasion and 
logical arguments may be presented on occasions to show 
the advantages of one creed and the errors of another, and 
such fair discussion may be helpful to the cause of the 
Savior. But all wrangling and exhibition of bigoted 
hatred destroy true religion. It is always best to be right. 
And when one is sure of it, then it is manly to declare it. 
But it is just as unmanly and unchristian to assail vindic- 
tively those who differ with us on questions of creed inter- 
pretations. The Good Samaritan's church will be the 
church of the future' Let us "go and do likewise." So 
the narrow sectarian minister who stabs his own friends 
in the back, instead of facing the great foe at the front, 
must not expect either salary or joy in this world. Such 
men are rare now. They will soon be a hideous curiosity 
if any should be discovered who have not starved. 

The need of the day is men who dare to be original and 
whose individuality is chastened, vigorous, and elevating. 
A man who studies to be eccentric is worse than the stu- 
dent who tries to imitate Wesley or Beecher or Spurgeon. 
Both must fail. A God-made man who is truly himself is 
the need of the times. A false-hearted pretender, study- 
ing to make his congregation believe by pyrotechnics that 
his soul is on fire for pure love of man, cannot long deceive 
his hearers. There are wires for intuitive currents be- 
tween soul and soul which tell many a well-kept secret and 
unmask the shrewdest actor. To be real, frank, and hon- 
est with all parties is the only true road. 

He who lightens the cares of the laborer, brightens the 
homes shadowed by grief, instils hope into broken lives, 
and guides into holiness the abandoned children of the 



"Acres of Diamonds" 315 

godless is a mighty force in the world's dynamics. There 
is a crying need for such men. The need is imperative. 
For the preservation of the freedom of the nation, for the 
sake of the general education of the people, for the sake 
of preserving human lives from murders and human rights 
from invasion, for the sake of women's virtue and men's 
honor, for the sake of peaceable communities and happy 
homes, for the sake of truth, righteousness, and peace, the 
race of true preachers of the divine Gospel must be en- 
larged. The day will never come when the public can 
afford to abolish the churches, nor will the time ever be 
known when the teachers of morality and the obligations 
of religion will not be a safeguard to society. 



LET THERE BE LIGHT" 



Classmates and Friends : 

As there is somewhere among waterfalls the mightiest 
cataract, and somewhere among mountains the highest 
peak, so somewhere among humanity's noble expressions 
there must be the sublimest sentence. Human language, 
like the landscape, has its elevations and depressions — its 
cavernous depths and its cloud-capped heights. Hence 
some person, somewhere, in some age, and in some lan- 
guage, has uttered the most majestic of all rhetorical com- 
binations. Lovers of literature and the students of oratory- 
have often asked, Who was that speaker ? In what age 
and land did he live ? And what is that most eloquent of 
all the grand articulations to which man has given breath ? 

Undertaking to answer these questions with convincing 
certainty, or to establish the claim of any single sentence 
to unquestioned pre-eminence, would be something like 
attempting again to discover the Holy Grail, the Philoso- 
pher's Stone, or the Fountain of Youth. Knowing, how- 
ever, that such a phrase must exist, and enjoying the 
pastime of such antiquarian research, I fell in with the 
crowd of inquisitive rhetoricians who were seeking for it, 
and have brought for your inspection the result of my 
search. I may not have found the supreme of all sublime 
sentences, but I was led to one so startling and grand that 
it filled me with wonder and awe, and one which compels 



"Let There Be Light" 317 

me sometimes to dream that it is the mightiest of them 
all. It was spoken and written long, long ago by a He- 
brew graduate of an Egyptian academy. The temples of 
Thebes and Memphis were that writer's schoolrooms, and 
his teachers the priests of Osiris. He spake many times, 
as the gods are said to speak, but this one sentence seems 
to have had no peer. When spoken in its original tongue, 
with a clear apprehension of its meaning, the soul loses 
itself in its contemplation. Webster, O'Connell, or Luther 
never approached its heights, neither did Cicero,- Demos- 
thenes, Paul, or Job pronounce its equal. When uttered 
in Hebrew the very combination of vowel and consonant 
sounds reminds the historian that the speaker had listened 
to the cataracts of the Nile and the thunders of Sinai : 
" Viyomer Eloi yehee oar: viyehee oar"; or in less for- 
cible English : " And God said, Let there be light ; and 
there was light." Let there be light ! Yehee oar! How 
that part of the sentence must have startled the sleeping 
universe in the darkness preceding creation's first morn- 
ing. Let there be light ! At those words, what myriads 
of worlds which the Chaldeans never dreamt of, seething 
with internal fires or buried in measureless fields of snow, 
were seen beginning their orderly flight through the pro- 
founds of eternal space ! Let there be light ! How it 
thunders down through the ages ! The matchless gran- 
deur of that short command grows into overpowering 
splendor as we ponder upon its import and study the cir- 
cumstances which led to its delivery. The darkness which 
had no beginning — the voice which was heard to the most 
distant worlds — the presence of the Almighty — the glory 
of that dawn — the rejoicing millions of new created worlds 



31 8 Russell H. Conwell 

— oh! how full of thrilling beauty are the thoughts awak- 
ened by that one sentence ! 

My friends, in that short phrase I found the key to the 
thoughts I bring you to-day. For, as I dwelt upon it as 
an unexampled portion of literary composition, I remem- 
bered that it was in that heaven-born light, which at 
God's command gleamed upon this frozen world and 
melted its icy chains; in that light which saw the first 
leaf of life springing from the powdered rocks ; in that 
light which had never shone upon death ; in that warmth 
which opened all the fountains of earth, and clothed the 
world with beauty; in that spring when life was in its 
blossom, and in that morning atmosphere which had never 
been used to utter a lie, nor breathed by a being that had 
done a wrong, — man was made. Human he was, and yet 
divine. Earthly he was, and yet so closely allied to the 
heavenly as to be but little lower than the angels. A 
perfect man and a perfect woman, dwelling in the pure 
light of a perfect day. Oh, who of us to-day can imagine 
what it is to be perfect ! To be so free from mental fault 
or physical blemish that the clear light fresh from the 
throne of the Eternal disclosed no defect; to be so intel- 
ligent as to be a fit associate for the archangels of heaven ; 
to be so complete in all the gracefulness of bodily outline 
that infallible sculptors would find no lack of due propor- 
tion; to be so pure that no hint of shame ever colored the 
cheeks ; to be so holy that no tinge of hate, selfishness, 
conceit, or vanity could shade a boundless love ; to be so 
wise that nothing the mind desired to know could remain 
a mystery, and to be so lovely and holy as to be the guest 
and ward of the Mighty God, and to be permeated by his 



"Let There Be Light" 319 

sweet light; oh! that is something which we degenerate 
beings cannot now understand. Nothing shows our weak- 
ness and our decline more vividly than the fact that we 
cannot now conceive of such a state, and cannot bring it 
within the scale of present possibilities. In that bright 
day of man's creation there was a light which illumined 
the intellectual no less than it beautified the physical. 
The soul as well as the body had its light and was filled 
with the glory of that pure morning. 

But there came a night, a deep, dark, gloomy night, in 
which no ray of that sweet dawning found its way to the 
intellectual part of men. The sun and moon rolled on; 
but the soul was too dark to be pierced by their rays. 
The aurora of the morning, the evening's glories in the 
west, and the mysterious streakings of the evening's 
northern sky were as beautiful through those dark cen- 
turies as they are now, but man was too benighted to see 
their glories. The landscapes were as enchanting as now ; 
the waterfall shimmered as brilliantly and murmured as 
sweetly as now ; the birds sang as charmingly, and the 
winds moaned as sadly as now ; the human form was as 
much a type of divinity then as now, and all the wonders 
of science, philosophy, art, and religion were as full of 
rapturous truths as they are now. But man, buried in an 
impenetrable midnight, saw not, felt not, heard not. 

It may be that some of my hearers have become such 
disciples of a modern school of science, that they hold 
with Darwin, that this night of which I speak was the 
primitive state of man, and that he was never created per- 
fect, but descended or ascended from the orang-outangs 
of the Nubian forests. Whether they or the theologians 



320 Russell H. Conwell 

be correct matters not for the further purpose of this ad- 
dress, as all admit that a night there was, and that it was 
a state of intellectual and moral gloom, which arouses a 
shudder as we glance back into it. All must agree that 
for three thousand years man has been slowly and inter- 
mittently creeping upward toward the light. He has 
been all that time yearning for more of God's intellectual 
sunlight, whether it be an intuitive longing for an illumi- 
nation which the race never saw, or an increasing desire 
for that primitive glory which the race once knew. And 
this craving for more of the eternal sunlight exhibits itself 
more and more strikingly in the humanity of each suc- 
ceeding age, and our souls are still striving, as Plato saw 
them in his time, unconsciously but earnestly, to get # into 
that full day, which many of us believe dawned at man's 
creation, when Nature was an open book, and Nature's 
God was in no wise a mystery. And I believe we soon 
shall see the blaze of man's second day, and then shall 
our restoration to our first estate be made complete. 

The glimmerings of man's second dawn began to appear 
far, far back in the centuries in those fitful gleams of 
prophecy and heroism which history mentions; but the 
full day has not beamed upon us even now. Yet I reason 
from the past that the world will some day see that morn- 
ing, and feel its glow. For again and again as we tread 
back through the paths which history points out to us, we 
hear the echo of those mighty words, " Let there be 
light ! " and with each repetition the horizon brightens. 

God said " Let there be light ! " and at the word the 
starry magicians, astrologers, and scientists of Nineveh 
and Babylon start into being. " Yehee oar! " arouses the 



"Let There Be Light " 321 

world again. And the prophet Moses stands forth clothed 
with inspiration and strong in a masterly intellect. 
Moses ! — learned in the science of Assyria, the manu- 
factures, commerce, architecture, and literature of Egypt, 
and in all the lore which his Serapian and Theban tutors 
could teach, or the libraries of the Osirian priesthood in- 
culcate. In the displays of wisdom by Moses in his in- 
spired pen, and in his system of government and morals, 
I see the first clear beams of man's new day. The light 
which hovered over those Hebrew flying columns and the 
brightness of the revelations on Sinai have never been 
wholly obscured, and the stars of astrology and mythology 
which they eclipsed have never since appeared. 

Again the words of God are heard — " Yehee oar ! " 
Let there be light ! " — and the prophetic teacher, Samuel, 
arises from obscurity to indite enduring words of wisdom, 
and to organize " the school of the prophets. " The influ- 
ence of that school of science, religion, and music upon 
mankind, as it has come down in varying forms, modifica- 
tions, and amalgamations, cannot be told nor imagined. 
The synagogue, the monastic schools, the street teaching 
in Germany, and our own common schools are but the 
brightening gleams of that same ray, and have Samuel for 
their author. 

God speaks again; and the pilgrim Grecians of Asia 
Minor hear the word, Phosegeneto ! (Let there be light), 
and Homer, immortal bard, stands forth in the mantle of 
genius. Genius, did I say ? Yes, they call it genius — 
that unaccountable, uncontrollable bursting forth of those 
fresh talents which cultivation or discipline cannot give, 
nor ignorance or persecution smother. But these displays 



322 Russell H. Conwell 

of "genius" which men talk of are simply the stray in- 
dications of man's returning power, and proof indisputable 
of his divine origin. And when man shall be wholly a 
genius in every grain and fiber of his being, then will he 
see the noon of his second day, and he will know all 
things. Homer was but a partial genius, great in a single 
direction, like most of his successors. Often have I been 
thrilled with the beauty and accuracy of his expressions, 
when applied to the early age of the world in which he 
lived, where he speaks of the " rosy-fingered Aurora," 
" Mother of Dawn," for it was not then morning. He 
too established schools — schools of poetry — at Scio and 
Athens to extend the beams of his genius, and the sky of 
his native, much-loved Greece was made bright by his 
coming. 

Again God spake, and the far East heard the fiat ; but 
the language of that land, although I have been months 
with its people, I cannot speak nor understand. " Let 
there be light! " and the Shantung mountains of Eastern 
China repeat the decree. Lo ! Confucius the philoso- 
pher walks abroad, infusing purity and love into the dark- 
ened souls of men. In schools of moral philosophy and 
metaphysics he laid the foundation for that system of 
education which gave to China such advanced civilization, 
and produced there so much of art and science long to 
the Western world unknown. It was Confucius who, by 
his schools established in a nation including one-quarter 
of all the people on earth, raised that enlightening stand- 
ard of human duty, " Do not unto others as you would not 
have them do unto you." He lifted a whole race in his 
powerful arms and gave them a glimpse of the coming day. 



. "Let There Be Light " 323 

Again I hear the command in Greek, Phosegeneto ! and 
the arches, towers, and palaces of fortified Athens echo 
the call. It is heard above the roar of gathering armies, 
marching to and from the fields of the Peloponnesian war. 
A darkness of ages made deeper by bloody strife rests 
upon Athens. " Let there be light ! " and there appear 
upon the active scene two of the greatest men of any time, 
and two of the most marvelous exhibitions of the latent 
powers resident in humanity that the world has ever seen. 
Behold Socrates the sage, having an intelligent keenness 
bordering on inspiration, who believes he is called of God 
to teach the divinity and immortality of the human soul ; 
and behold, too, Phidias the sculptor, who thinks it is 
his great duty to teach the divinity and heavenly beauty 
of the human body. Twin giants in intellect ! " They 
stand alone amid a throng." They have a might which 
the fabled Atlas and Hercules could scarce equal. For 
they lifted the world and held it up in the light of higher 
spheres. Philosophers and lawgivers had passed and re- 
passed in stately processions over those classic plains 
through a hundred years preceding the advent of Socrates, 
and yet it was dark. Even Theseus, Solon, Pythagoras, 
^Eschylus, and Thucydides had gone on before him, and 
though the quarrelsome, selfish Ionian, Dorian, Eleatic 
schools of philosophy had attracted some attention, yet, 
like the lurid, fitful glarings of Stromboli, they illumined 
the scene but a moment, and then sank back into the 
waves, to make even the night seem darker. 

But the work of obese and ragged old Socrates reflected 
that permanent and purer light which could never be 
quenched or hid. His declarations, as they were preserved 



324 Russell H. Conwell 

for us by his disciples, Plato and Xenophon, stand to-day 
as unmoved as the words of philosophy. On that founda- 
tion academies and colleges arose which have never changed 
their creed. Guided by the ray of Socrates' genius, 
Plato taught, Xenophon journalized, Aristotle reasoned, 
and Demosthenes declaimed. Because of him, academic 
classes met for discussion on the banks of the Ilissus. 
By him was established that method of enlightening man- 
kind which civilized a large portion of Europe and still 
exerts an influence although merged in the universities 
established by religious teachers. 

The instruction of Phidias differed from that of Socrates 
in method as it did in theory. He appealed to the eye 
and not to the ear. He taught by symbols, and showed 
his scholars how much beauty lay beneath them and 
around them which they in their blindness had not dis- 
covered. To the scholar who even in this advanced age 
reads Pausanias' sketch of his ramble in Athens, and 
notes the power of Phidias' genius for calling into being 
colonnades, palaces, propylae, and parthenons, the reality 
of those days is as marvelous as the potential magic of 
Arabian fable. He gave the signal, and, in an incompre- 
hensible manner, Athens became peopled by gods in hu- 
man form. Faces such as the world has never seen else- 
where since the days of Paradise smile upon him from 
pillars of brass ; delicate hands beckon to him from blocks 
of wood ; and figures of transcendent loveliness stand forth 
at his bidding from tusks of ivory and bowlders of marble. 
Oh! if the sculptures and paintings of Phidias were, after 
all, imperfect, faulty, and finite, what must have been the 
beauty of the living human form, just as it came from the 



"Let There Be Light" 325 

hands of the divine sculptor ; and what shall be its beauty 
in that new day when matter shall succumb to mind and 
science shall overcome decay ! 

To those whose tastes have not led them into the study 
of art, and to such as have not followed the disciples of 
Phidias through the pages of history, I fear I shall seem 
unreasonably enthusiastic. But when we dwell upon this 
theme and detect its powerful influence in all subsequent 
sculpture and painting ; when we learn that Milo, Praxite- 
les, Cleomenes, Da Vinci, Rubens, Angelo, Van'Eyck, and 
Raphael were his devoted disciples ; and when we see the 
ruins of Asia and Rome, the palaces of Europe, and the 
long galleries of European and American art, and remem- 
ber how they are but the outgrowth of that same genius 
under various conditions, we hail the birth of Phidias as 
a sure indication of the coming perfect day. 

Once more I hear the Hebrew words, " Yehee oar ! " 
and while all Nature trembles and heaven itself stands 
revealed, Jesus of Nazareth, the "second man, Adam," 
walks 'mid a concourse of angels, among the hills of Pal- 
estine. Hear the testimony of the ages ! He comes to 
save and to restore. He comes by example to show what 
perfection man may yet attain. He comes to give to man 
purity, loveliness, innocence, and set him back in the 
Paradise he has lost. 

Jesus, too, founded a school which is in session still, 
and will be in session until we are like him, and see him 
as he is. With his advent came the early dawn of our 
new day. Hazy and cloudy at times it has been since 
his light began to shine, but the growth and progress of 
man's civilization under the' influence of Christianity un- 



326 Russell H. Conwell 

mistakably shows that the sunrise is fast approaching. 
Since his time the echoes of that command, " Let there 
be light ! " have been heard on every hand. It was heard 
at Rome in the fourth century, when Constantine inscribed 
" In hoc signo vinces " on the banner of the cross. It 
was heard in the sixth century, when Justinian codified the 
civil law. It was heard in the thirteenth century, when 
the great Magna Charta was given to the English people. 
It was heard in the fifteenth century, when Columbus dis- 
covered America, and when Faust and Gutenberg in- 
vented printing. How it rang through Germany in the 
sixteenth century — " Licht fort ! " — when Martin Luther 
came forth to disperse the clouds of error; and again in 
the same century, when Copernicus established his schools 
of astronomy, of whom Kepler and Newton were the dis- 
ciples ! That voice was heard when Linnaeus systematized 
the study of botany ; when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth ; 
when a republic was established in America; when Steph- 
enson constructed the locomotive; when Morse invented 
the telegraph; when the universities of Europe were 
founded; when Harvard endowed the college at Cam- 
bridge, and Bishop Berkeley founded Yale ; when Bichat 
organized the Parisian school of anatomy; when Daguerre 
and Talbot invented photography ; and in countless other 
ways I may not, cannot mention now, the call, " Let there 
be light ! " has been heard and heeded. 

It is true that this progress has not been without inter- 
ruption, and often has it appeared as if the day was reced- 
ing instead of advancing. Darkness and light are foes, 
which have disputed each inch of ground, and with vary- 
ing success. The architects of Ephesian Diana had their 



"Let There Be Light" 327 

Erostratus. Ptolemy and Demetrius collected the Alex- 
andrian library for Caliph Omar to destroy. Athens had 
its iconoclastic Turks and Goths, and Rome its Vandals; 
and thus through all -the centuries, clouds have darkened 
the horizon and obscured the new day. 

Among the many forms in which the returning divinity 
of man has been displayed in modern times, the greatness 
and goodness of three men especially should not be over- 
looked by us as we discuss this theme to-day. Let us 
speak their names softly — Charles Wesley, John Wesley, 
and George Whitefield. They were men of great genius, 
endowed with marvelous strength, and came forth in an- 
swer to the command, " Let there be light ! " They came 
in that cloudy and hazy time in the early part of the eigh- 
teenth century so similar to that gloomy period in which 
Luther was born. Then there was great need of light to 
show the people the tyranny and emptiness of the existing 
church. There were moral shackles to be loosed, yearning 
hearts to be satisfied, new truths to be evolved, hospitals 
to be founded, schools and colleges to be planted, heathen 
to be reclaimed, and an advance to be made in the methods 
of teaching practical Christianity. God said, " Let there 
be light ! " and this revered trio stood forth commissioned 
for that work. 

It was but a hundred and thirty-eight years ago the 24th 
of last May that the command was heard by them, and be- 
hold how bright the horizon has become ! How much 
more enlightened and pure are mankind than they were 
when George and John began to declaim, and Charles, the 
"sweet-voiced," opened his lips to sing! Looking upon 
the Methodist family, as I do, from the enclosures of an- 



328 Russell H. Conwell 

other denomination, I may confirm the records of faithful 
history without danger of appearing egotistic. And as I 
stand here and look back through the intervening events to 
that day when those eager, weeping crowds thronged the 
fields of Bristol, and try to estimate the influence of Meth- 
odistic doctrines, by competition and accord, upon other 
churches, and upon the conduct of national affairs, I can 
say there has been no ray more bright than this since the 
days of Paul. 

John Wesley was not the man of one idea which some 
of his injudicious and inaccurate biographers have made 
him. The Bible, though first, was not his only book. The 
hearts of men, though dearest to him, received not his ex- 
clusive attention. He was great enough to see that man 
was composed of complex elements, which demanded cau- 
tious and various discipline. He saw that the civilization 
of the world thus far had been accomplished by means of 
schools. He saw that one great genius, by founding a 
school, could thus reproduce himself in limitless numbers. 
He saw in his day, as we see in this, that great as the 
ancient sages were in their own age, when there was only 
one of each to be found in all the millions, yet in these 
later times neither Pythagoras, Plato, Cicero, nor Herodotus 
would attract any especial attention if living and moving 
among our civilized men. Nor would they be pointed out 
and called great to-day among the thousands of their equals 
which the schools have reproduced. 

A genius appears to be the exclusive and direct work of 
the Almighty, and the po.wer to create the first one lies 
with God alone. But the reproduction and generation of 
others from them, through schools and colleges, is within 



a 



Let There Be Light " 329 



the scope of human agency. Wesley believed himself to 
be a pure and inspired man — a genius in that direction — 
and he desired to see many others like himself coming up 
to take his place ; and in order to accomplish this he estab- 
lished schools after the example of Samuel, Homer, Soc- 
rates, Demosthenes, and Luther. Every Methodist church 
was to be a school with its classes and teachers, and every 
Methodist community was to have an academy and college 
in which everything that made men more intellectual, more 
dignified, more pure should be taught from the text-books 
of every science and every profession. This was his plan. 
Mark how it has succeeded ! Then, there was but one John 
Wesley. To-day, in the eighty-nine thousand preachers 
at work in the Methodist faith, there are hundreds, aye, 
thousands of Wesleys, in intellectual power and godlike 
self-sacrifice. More than this : by his schools and acad- 
emies founded by him and his disciples, and by the com- 
prehensive scope of their studies, the other great minds of 
other ages walk the earth again in substitutes as great as 
the originals. Among the four and one-quarter millions 
of Wesley's followers to-day there are poets, philosophers, 
mathematicians geologists, astronomers, historians, paint- 
ers, and sculptors, who vie with and sometimes equal the 
ancients, and who are the outgrowth and result of his 
school. 

This institution which we to-day meet to honor, in the 
celebration of its fiftieth (or rather fifty-second) anniver- 
sary, is but one of ninety-two different public institutions 
of learning established and sustained in this land in the 
name of Wesley. What a might do they contain ! What 
possibilities lie before them ! I cannot batter elaborate 



33° Russell H. Conwell 

my theme or more surely push home to your hearts a prop- 
er respect for Wesley's multiplied genius, nor better show 
the advance of the new day, than by using the illustration 
which this institution and its alumni afford. This is but 
one of the least of Wesley's representatives, and by study- 
ing the smaller we may judge of the greater. By analyz- 
ing this academy and its work, and comprehending how 
much influence even a small organized effort of this char- 
acter may exert, our faith will be strengthened and our 
hope revived in the near approach of that bright day when 
"all shall know him, from the least unto the greatest," 
and every one shall understand all his works and ways. 

In the fifty-two years which have passed away since this 
academy was located on this hill-side, something over sev- 
enteen thousand young men and young women have become 
familiar with these halls. They came to this place from 
every grade of society and from widely separated homes. 
They came in that transition period of their lives when 
their ambitions were unshaped and their character unde- 
cided. They came here with the whims and caprices of 
boys and girls, and went away with the motives and de- 
termination of men and women. A large proportion of 
them never attended a college or university, but began 
their active life upon the capital which they received from 
this institution. 

Inspired by hopes which were here awakened, the bash- 
ful boys who blushed each time their names were called 
at prayers grew to jurists, ministers, scientists, poets, 
artists, and statesmen. The girls whose cheeks grew pal- 
lid at each recitation, and who wept at each failure, went 
forth to be the consorts of the noble and good, to the 



"Let There Be Light " 331 

labor of teaching the ignorant, enlightening the heathen, or 
soothing the pains and wounds of suffering humanity. I 
wish it were feasible in this time and place to call the roll 
of those who have answered the committee's inquiries, 
that we might show in detail the standing and influence of 
Wilbraham alumni. A very large number became preach- 
ers of the Gospel, and some of them have attained honor- 
able eminence as pulpit orators. Scores of them write 
"D.D." after their names, and some have been promoted 
to the office of bishop ; one of the latter and many of the 
former being with us to-day. 

Many adopted the legal profession, and, through long 
practice, have proved that a Christian missionary and a 
Christian lawyer may be synonymous terms. It gratifies 
us exceedingly to meet to-day amid these old scenes one 
who defended poor John Brown, of Ossawatamie — the 
indiscreet but martyr-like lover of the slaves. When Vir- 
ginia had condemned him beforehand, one of our alumni 
went from home and safety to meet foes and danger, that 
the accused might have all of the few privileges known to 
the slaveholder's law. Others there were who became 
judges, and even chief justices; one of whom from an ad- 
joining State we welcome to these festivities. 

Many became professors in colleges, universities, and 
academies, thus multiplying the influence of this work, and 
to day several of the leading and oldest universities in the 
land number some of our alumni among their teachers and 
trustees. Some became the editors of our influential news- 
papers. Some became authors, and many of their works 
are an honor to them and their alma mater. We have not 
had a Bacon, a Goethe, a Lamartine, a Dante, a Shakespeare, 



332 Russell H. Conwell 

a Dickens, or an Agassiz, but we have had competent and 
able commentators and instructive analyzers of the works 
of all those writers. 

Many became warriors — and here I must pause to give 
this thought more than a passing notice. We cannot for- 
get the generals of distinction, the statesmen of renown, 
who in their youth recited in thepe rooms, and who in their 
elder days upheld the nation in its last and greatest trial. 
We cannot forget the uprising of all our classmates when 
the bugle of war was heard. To follow them through all 
that struggle would be to live over again the direst and 
darkest events of the war. They were to be seen 

" On every field of strife made red 
By bloody victory." 

How the scenes of war unfold before us at the call of 
their names ! The brook, the bridge, the fence of Antie- 
tam; the stone wall, the height, the plain of Fredericks- 
burg; the seminary, the valley, the cemetery, the round 
tops of Gettysburg, and the chain of forts at Petersburg 
are spread again before us, one after the other, with the 
smoke, the charge, the cannon, the shriek of shell, the yell- 
ing of men, and the field of the dead. Yes, our classmates 
were there ; and though some are with us, yet many a field 
in the South is dotted to-day with the graves of our patri- 
otic schoolmates. 

We would not forget nor overlook those women who 
meet with us, and many who cannot, but who, with all the 
sacrifice and abjuration of nuns, and without the safe- 
guards and respect which the garb of the cloister gives, 
went into field and hospital in storm and in heat on errands 



"Let There Be Light" 333 

of unselfish love. Let us honor, too, that great body of 
our men and women who, when the nation gave to the 
black men a voice in their government, went boldly and 
affectionately into their midst, and gave up all the hopes 
and pleasures of civilized life that the slave might be as 
free in intellect as he had become in body. 

Others of our number are to be found superintending 
railways, factories, and steamship lines. Some are in the 
service of our Government, and some are in the employ of 
foreign nations, while many are merchants, farmers, bank- 
ers, and capitalists, serving their country in working for 
themselves. Thus it will be seen how great a share in 
the world's progress this work has had, which is but one 
of Wesley's many, and by no means the most influential. 
Thus can we estimate in some degree the power which 
these schools and colleges have had and will have in has- 
tening the world's new day. 

They who founded this academy " builded better than 
they knew." Their gray heads are dear to us, and our 
memory of them will be inspired and sweet. For in that 
time when they searched for a location for this institution 
up and down the land, there were faltering and fear about 
them, where now are firmness and hopes. Then the friends 
of the enterprise were few, isolated, and poor ; now they are 
counted by thousands, with organized workers, and with an 
alumni that can command millions. God said, " Let there 
be light ! " and there was light. Then, had its supporters 
given their all, they could not have constructed the build- 
ings now standing; while to-day its friends, if they choose, 
could without great sacrifice pay off its debt and endow it 
with a half-million. The day of weakness has passed, and 



334 Russell H. Conwell 

this is the day of its strength. The next half-century 
must see this plain covered with buildings and these wide 
walks crowded with students. The world will move on 
the light will shine with greater effulgence, and we must 
have a share in its progress. God will still wing the 
minds of men with genius, and institutions like this will 
spread their influence and multiply their number until no 
more remains to be known and no more remains to be 
done. 

If the dream of the scientist or the belief of the theo- 
logian is ever realized; if the mind is to rule matter; if it 
is true that mankind are some day to become perfect ; if all 
the problems in mathematics and chemistry are to be 
solved by men ; if distance and time are to be annihilated ; 
if mind is to be read by mind; if the mysterious connec- 
tion of the soul with the body and the soul with God are 
to be understood here ; if other worlds are to be visited 
and peopled ; if everything psychological, geological, and 
astronomical is to be as plain to the mind of man as it is 
to the mind of God — and this is the logical sequence of 
continuous progress — then it appears to me, judging from 
history, that it will be accomplished by the aid of institu- 
tions of learning as much as by prayer and sacrifice. And 
in this work, my friends, I repeat, we must have our share 
if we would look back upon this life with satisfaction. 

The world's second day is already dawning. Events 
which in the darkness of past ages were miracles are 
common, well-understood occurrences to-day. Could the 
scholars of ancient Greece or Alexandria look up from 
their graves to-day, they would see us rising to the sky, 
diving to the bottom of the ocean, making the lightning 



"Let There Be Light " 335 

obey our commands, talking with people thousands of 
miles away, pulling into pieces and repairing the living 
body, viewing the landscapes of the sun and moon, read- 
ing the records of creation in the sands of the shore, build- 
ing new cities and even great nations in a single life- 
time, giving to a grain of powder the power of the earth- 
quake, controlling the growth and forms of the vegetable 
and animal kingdom, and doing nearly all those things 
which in their day were the exclusive privileges of the 
gods. 

The morning comes on apace, and let us hasten its com- 
ing as others have hastened it. Oh, happy will it be for 
us if, in future years, we can look back upon to-day and 
say in those sublimest words : " God said, Let there be 
light, and there was light " ! Aye, let us teach, let us 
work, let us give, let us build and endow, looking earnestly 
forward to the noon of that day when evil, ignorance, and 
decay shall wholly disappear from earth by reason of man's 
restoration to his primal state ! 

"Then shall the reign of mind begin on earth; 
And starting fresh as from a second birth, 
Man in the sunshine of the world's new spring 
Shall walk transparent like some holy thing." 



Songs of The Nation. 

Compiled by Col. Charles W. Johnson. 

This is a book which is worthy of its title. No other 
book published meets so fully and with such fitness, the 
obvious requirements of a volume of songs which can 
properly bear the broad title — " Songs of The Nation." 

With the new enthusiasm for country and flag, which 
the sweep of war has intensified, the desire for patriotic 
songs has deepened. Around the piano at home, in 
summer hotels, in societies and clubs, in students' rooms, 
and, most of all, in schools, there is wanted an adequate 
collection of general songs, broad and exalted in nature 
and varied enough for many occasions. 

Precisely to meet this need is the aim of this volume. 
It is a superb collection which- embodies the patriotic 
songs most in demand (25 of them), together with many 
more songs for anniversaries and occasions ; American 
folk-songs, a group of old religious favorites, the best 
college songs, etc. 

The distinguished compiler, Col. Charles W. Johnson, 
who for ten years was chief clerk of the United States 
Senate, has cast the book in conformity to a lofty ideal 
and with regard to the versatility of public taste. 

The introductory chapter on music in public schools, 
by Mr. Leonard B. Marshall, Superintendent of Musical 
Instruction of the Boston schools, will be of large prac- 
tical value to all teachers of music. 

The book is of noble appearance, with large type and 
heavy paper. 

4to, 160 pages. Retail price, 75 cents. 

(For introductory price to Schools send for special circular .) 

" Above all the swarm of small and unsatisfactory collections of 
patriotic songs 'The Songs of The Nation' stands as the highest in 
degree, the widest in scope, and the most attractive in appearance. It is a 
school and college song book no less than a handy book for every home 
piano." — The Illustrated American. 



Silver, Burdett and Company, Publishers, 

Boston. New York. Chicago. 



Historic Pilgrimages in 
New England. 

By Edwin M. Bacon. 

This is the vivid story of early New England, told 
while standing upon the very spots where the stirring 
Colonial drama was enacted. The famous places where 
the Puritans and Pilgrims planted their first homes, the 
ancient buildings, and the monuments to the wise and 
dauntless founders of the great Commonwealth are 
visited, and, while in the atmosphere of the associations, 
the thrilling narrative of the past is recounted. 

The connecting thread is the summer pilgrimage which 
a thoughtful young fellow from a western college makes 
to the country of his ancestors. He is accompanied by 
his father's friend, who talks entertainingly about the 
memorable facts which the hallowed soil suggests. 

The boy's earnest curiosity stands for the interest 
which some millions of others feel in the same events 
and personalities and shrines. 

Of all the books which describe that country and set 
forth the significance of the deeds done there, — from the 
landing of the Pilgrims to the first blow of the Revolution, 
— this new volume combines, perhaps, the most that is 
of interest to lovers of Yankee-land. It is accurate. It 
abounds in facts hitherto unpublished. It gives snatches 
from early diaries and documents. Disputed stories are 
sifted until the fabulous elements are cut out. 

The style is graphic from start to finish — even statis- 
tics are made picturesque. 

^75 Pages, ijj Illustrations. Uncut edges. Retail ptice, $1.50. 
( F07' introductory price of School Edition send for Circular.) 

For School Libraries and Reading Circles, this book appeals to a deep 
and constant taste. For Supplementary Reading in the higher grades 
it is a mine of interest a?id delightful instructiveness. 

11 ' Historic Pilgrimages ' abundantly justifies its double purpose of 
serving both the student's needs of a graphic summary of the history 
of Massachusetts Bay, and the stranger-visitor's need of a preparation 
for, and a pleasant keepsake of, his journeyings." — Boston Journal. 

Silver, Burdett and Company, Publishers, 

Boston. New York. Chicago. 



The Old Northwest, 

or, 
The Beginnings of Our Colonial System. 

By B. A. Hinsdale, Ph.D., LL.D., 

University of Michigan. 

" The Old Northwest " is almost as distinctive a term 
in the history of our country as " New England " or 
" The South." It is the title of the original public 
domain. Out of this first Territory recognized by Con- 
gress, were carved the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. 

No one can really understand the history of the 
United States who has not carefully studied the growth 
of this important section. Dr. Hinsdale portrays those 
features which make it a historical unit. By quotations 
from original documents, by exhaustive investigation of 
data, he has uncovered the sources of the history of the 
formative period of this most characteristic locality. 
No other single volume so covers it. 

Scholarly in method, luminous in style, illustrated 
with plates, this masterly book is a necessity to every 
student of American history. Its narrative is also of 
practical interest to the residents of the modern States 
which have sprung, with similar traits, from the Old 
Northwest. 

New edition, revised, 8vo, 420 pages, cloth. 
Retail price, $i.Jj. 

11 One of the most valuable additions to American history that has 
recently been made."— New York Stm. 

Silver, Burdett and Company, Publishers, 

Boston. New York. Chicago. 



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